Baby of the families
by MysticFantasy
Summary: Before he was a Mercer he was a Darley. Jack was just a kid when he was taken away from his blood family and soon found himself becoming a Mercer. But Jack's real family tracks him down to Detroit and go looking for him.
1. Prologue

**Baby of the families**

**By: MysticFantasy**

**.**

**.**

A/N: (_My best friend got me the movie Death Sentence as an early b-day present and I love her to death for it. Came up with an idea for a story. Hope you like it._)

Disclaimer: (_I own no part of either movie or the characters in it._)

.

.

"Jackie. Look Jackie."

Four year old Jack Darely looked over and a smile crossed his face when he saw a chocolate chip cookie being handed to him.

The person holding the cookie handed it to the small child and smiled when he saw the sweet snack being eaten, then frowned when he heard a loud crash come from downstairs.

The sound of another young boy filled the air before various shouts of older men followed.

"Billy?" Jack cried in fear and uncertainty.

"It's ok Jack." Billy said kneeling next to his youngest brother.

"Billy!"

"Where's Joey?" Jack asked as tears started to form in his eyes.

An answer never came as the door to the room burst open and three grown police officers rushed in.

"Kids, you have to come with us." one of them said.

"Why?" Billy demanded as he stood in front of Jack. "Where's Joe?"

"He's downstairs being taken care of. You both have to come with us now. You can't live here anymore. Your father's been arrested."

Two officers stepped forward and each grabbed one of the boys.

"Billy!" Jack cried being carried out of the room and downstairs.

"Let go!" Billy shouted in anger as he was carried down the same path. "Leave my brother's alone!"

"We're just trying to help you." the officer said keeping a tight grip.

Billy was carried outside where squad cars were located with flashing lights and more cops. He found himself being carried to a car where he spotted his other brother Joey.

Frantically, he looked around and saw that Jack was being taken to a different car.

"Jack!"

"Billy!" Jack cried with tears streaming down his face as he was placed in a squad car alone.

"Jack! That's my little brother! Jack! I'll find you! I promise!"


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**By: MysticFantasy**

.

.

Billy Darely, famed and dangerous gang leader, looked out the window of his hideout to see the city before him. He turned from the view and sat at his old and worn out desk. He opened one of the drawers, reached in and brought out a small photo.

The photo was of three little boys, each of them looked so much alike that it was easy to tell that they were related.

Billy's eyes went to the youngest in the photo. The brother that was taken from him.

"Billy! We might have something."

"What is it?" Billy asked looking up from the photo to see his brother Joe walk in.

"Check it out." Joe said handing Billy a file.

The gang leader took the file and opened it. He was right away greeted with a photo of a young man with spiky blondish brown hair hair and piercing blue eyes.

"It's him." Billy exclaimed quietly.

"I think we found him man." Joe said. "That dude that you got a hold on at the office says that after Jack was taken away from us that he was put in the d**n foster care system. Ended up in a bunch of different homes where he was treated like s**t. By the time he was eight he was already hospitalized more times than all of our guys put together. He's been adopted and that's why we could never find him."

Billy looked at a note attachment across from the photo.

_Jackson Darely Mercer_

_Adopted September 3, 1992 by Evelyn Mercer._

_Current location: Detroit, Michigan_

_Adopted siblings: Robert, Jeremiah and Angel_

_Reason for placement in foster care system: Biological father was notoreous gang leader and known drug dealer. Living conditions for three Darely sons not suitable. Darely children were removed from father's custody. Jackson only one known to be adopted._

"Billy?"

"They're positive this is where he is right now?" Billy asked. "This is our Jack. No question about it. Looks just like us."

"They said that he's been at that location since the adoption. Maybe we're finally gonna get our brother back."

"I know Joe. Let's go see about transportation. After sixteen years the Darley boys are going to be together again." Billy declared.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Sixteen years ago he had been forcably taken away from his two brother's. He hadn't heard anything about them during that time which was why he was questioning if they were alive or not.

Jack looked at the old but well kept photo of himself and his two blood brother's when they had been little kids. He was around four in the picture, his brother Joe was about six and Billy was close to eleven.

The picture had been taken a short time before the three of them had been removed from their father's custody and before they had been torn apart.

Jack still remembered that day so clearly.

He heard the door being broken down, heard Joe screaming downstairs, saw police officers barge into the room, Billy trying to protect him, being carried to a squad car and, most importantly, hearing Billy promise that he would find him.

So many years had passed since then and now Jack found himself back in Detroit after attending the funeral of his dear mother Evelyn.

Two days had passed since the funeral but Jack still felt as if he had just seen Evelyn's casket being lowered into the cold ground.

He had been so emotional that he had brought out the photo of his two real brother's and started thinking about them.

The photo was the only thing he had to remind him of his brother's and he did what he could to keep it in good condition. He kept it in small silver frame and took it with him wherever he went. Not to mention that he didn't let anyone see it.

He wasn't sure if Bobby, Jerry and Angel knew about it or the fact that he has two biological brother's out there. Bobby would most likely be the first or only one to know and that thought made Jack wonder a lot.

How would Bobby react if Billy magically appeared and became his big brother again?


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**By: MysticFantasy**

.

.

After a quick pit stop at a gas station, Joe found himself driving his brother's car while his older brother looked at the file he had gotten and two members of their gang were fast asleep in the back seat.

It was near six in the evening and Billy had ordered that they were going to drive straight through the night if they had to in order to make it to Detroit within the next day. At the speed they were going it might not be a problem.

"What's the file say?" Joe asked to break the silence.

"You were right when you said that the houses he'd been in treated him like s**t." Billy said in a low voice. "If I find any of these people who did this to our brother I'm gonna kill them."

Joe lightly gulped. When Billy made a death threat, he kept it. He didn't feel sorry for the people who had tormented his long lost little brother. They hurt a Darley and most likely another Darley was going to get revenge.

"What's it say about him after he got adopted?" Joe asked changing lanes and speeding by a truck.

"Says here that his adopted mother, Evelyn Mercer, was appearantly a social worker who helped kids like him. Check this out, Jack was labled a 'lost cause'."

"What?" Joe gasped. "_Our_ Jack? A lost cause? He was the easiest kid to get along with."

"According to this file, those houses he was in messed him up pretty bad. Stopped talking for nearly a year. This Evelyn took him in to help him and ended up adopting him. He was the fourth kid she did this to. She did the same with three older guys that are now Jack's adopted brother's. Robert, Jeremiah and Angel."

"You think we'll have to get through these guys to get to Jack?" Joe asked.

"Not if we find this Evelyn woman or Jack first." Billy answered. "We'll talk to them first. See if Jack remembers us. He was too little when they took him away. He probably doesn't remember what happened."

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Jack removed his jacket as Bobby talked to him about the store robbery.

"Who would anyone wanna kill the sweetest woman in the world?" he asked.

"I don't know Jackie." Bobby answered as they stood in the kitchen. "We'll find out though. You hungry?"

"Little bit." Jack answered.

"Make something then." Bobby said with a grin as he grabbed a beer from the fridge.

"A**hole." Jack chuckled. He went to the fridge and started to pull things out for a sandwich. He placed the items on the counter but stopped before he could start making anything.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his prized photo of himself and two brother's.

"What's this?"

Jack gasped when the photo was snapped out of his hand.

"Give it back!"

"Alright, calm down." Bobby exclaimed seeing how worked up Jack was and handed the photo back. "Why you so jumpy all of a sudden Jack? What's with the picture?"

"It's of me. When I was little. Before I was seperated from my brother's." Jack said quietly.

"Brother's?" Bobby repeated a bit surprised. "You have actual brother's and you never told us about them? Did mom know?"

Jack nodded and showed Bobby the picture again.

"That's Billy." he said pointing to the oldest. "And that's Joe." he finished pointing at the second.

"They look just like you man." Bobby said. "Do you know where they are?"

Jack shook his head.

"The night that we were seperated...Our father had been arrested and we were taken out to the squad cars. I don't know why but I was seperated from Billy and Joe. Next thing I know I'm in the foster system, being put in different homes, taken to different towns and then being adopted by mom. I never heard anything about Billy or Joe again. I don't even know if they're alive or not."

"I'm sorry man." Bobby said hugging his brother's shoulders. "When this is all over we can look through some stuff at mom's work and see if there's anything on them. Alright?"

Jack nodded lightly.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Billy parked the car in an empty spot at a motel and cut the engine. The second car containing the rest of his gang pulled up in the spot next to his and they all got out of the cars.

It was early the next morning and they had somehow cleared the seven hundred mile drive during the night. They had decided to rest up a bit before inspecting anything.

"Baggy, go get us some rooms." Billy ordered. "Joey, come here."

Joe walked around the car to stand with his brother apart from the rest of the guys.

"What's up?"

"In an hour you and me are gonna go to this social service and find this Evelyn Mercer woman. We'll explain everything and get her to let us see Jack." Billy explained.

"You sure man?" Joe asked. "You should get some rest first. You've been awake for the past few hours."

"I can handle it." Billy replied. "You can sleep for a while if you want but in one hour you and me are going into town and find this lady that adopted Jack."

"Alright. Whatever you want bro." Joe said and spotted Baggy walking back with a few keys in his hand. Four keys were handed out but Billy made sure that he and Joe got a room together. The other three rooms were divided between the rest of the gang.

As soon as Joe laid on the bed he was out like a light and snoring away. Billy on the other hand sat on the empty side of the large bed and continued to look at Jack's file. He didn't want to tell Joe but there had been a few pictures of Jack when he had been removed from several of the foster homes.

Billy felt more anger in him when he had seen the pictures. He hated seeing bruises, cuts, scratches, casts and anything else on his baby brother. Luckily the pictures and reports of abuse had ended when Jack was adopted by Evelyn Mercer and the only time that Jack was ever at a hospital again was when he had gotten pneumonia.

The hour had passed and Billy had gotten Joe up. The two snuck out of their motel room and back into Billy's car. Using the GPS on his phone, Joe directed Billy on which roads and highways to take in order to get to the social service address where Evelyn worked.

After a twenty minute drive, the two had pulled up to a large white building with dozens of cars in the large parking lot.

"Think we'll get to see her?" Joe asked keeping up with Billy's quick pace.

"We'll see her." Billy assured as they came to the front door and walked in. The building was quiet and the two right away spotted a woman sitting at a desk a few feet away.

They walked over and she looked up at them.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" she asked.

"Yeah, we're lookin' for Evelyn Mercer. It's an emergency." Billy answered.

"I'm sorry sir but Miss Evelyn passed away a few days ago."

Billy and Joe felt their hearts come to a halt. The woman they had come to see was dead? How was it possible?

"Is there anyone else that can help you with your emergency?" the receptionist asked.

Billy felt his mind working again as an idea came to him.

"Yea, the only other person who could help is her son Robert. I know him and his brother's, Jeremiah and Angel, but I don't have a clue where they live."

_Stupid woman giving out information so easily._ Joe thought watching the woman write down an address and hand it to his brother. _She's lucky we're not here to kill anyone._

The two walked outside and Billy looked at the address before handing it to Joe.

"Put it in your phone and let's get goin'." he said. "I can't believe that lady gave us the address just like that. I bet the only reason she thought we weren't murderer's was because we knew this lady and her kid's."

Joe entered the address in his phone as he and Billy got back in the car.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Jack, Bobby and Angel were all awake before nine which surprised all of them to be up that early.

The youngest brother had, like always, cooked breakfast for them and together the three were eating at the table.

No one was bringing up the topic of their next move in their little investigation and to be honest Jack was relieved about it. He didn't like running around town and getting into trouble, even though he was glad to figure out what happened to his mother.

_Knock, knock, knock_

"Get the door Jackie." Bobby said reading the newspaper.

Jack sighed but didn't argue. Quickly wiping his mouth, he stood up and went to the front door where he could see two shadows on the other side.

He opened the door and saw two guys a little older than him standing on the other side.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"Yea. You're Jack Darely from Boston right?" the older man with tattoo's on his neck asked.

Jack looked at the man suspiciously. "How'd you know my real last name?" he asked.

"Jack, we're your brother's. Billy and Joe." the man answered.

Jack's eyes went wide when he finally saw the resemblance in the two that he had seen from the reflection of himself in a mirror.

"Billy? Joe?" Jack whispered feeling a little dizzy.

"Yeah Jackie. It's us. You're big brother's."

Jack finally gave into the dizziness and everything went black as he fell to the side.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**By: MysticFantasy**

.

.

Bobby and Angel jumped up when they heard a loud _THUD_. They rushed from the dinning room toward the front door with Bobby grabbing his pistol from his waistband. When they reached the front door they were stunned at the sight.

Two strange men were kneeling next to Jack who was out cold on the floor and one was lightly shaking his shoulders.

"Get the f**k away from him!" Bobby ordered pointing his gun at the two.

The younger of the two right away backed away from Jack with his hands up by his shoulder's as if to prove he wasn't going to do anything.

The other man slowly rose from the flooor and looked at Bobby with a perfectly calm face.

Angel took the chance to check on Jack.

"Who the hell are you and what'd you do to my little brother?" Bobby demanded.

"_Your_ little brother?" the man with a shaved head and tattoo'd neck repeated. "I'm takin' a guess here. You're Robert."

"Also known as Bobby." Bobby said. "Since you know me, I wanna know who you are and what you're doing here."

"Fair enough. I'm here on a matter of family business. Name's Billy Darely. That's Joe Darely. We're Jack's real big brother's."

Bobby froze when he heard the men's names and his mind went back to the conversation he and Jack had just last night.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

_"The night that we were seperated...Our father had been arrested and we were taken out to the squad cars. I don't know why but I was seperated from Billy and Joe. Next thing I know I'm in the foster system, being put in different homes, taken to different towns and then being adopted by mom. I never heard anything about Billy or Joe again. I don't even know if they're alive or not."_

_"I'm sorry man." Bobby said hugging his brother's shoulders. "When this is all over we can look through some stuff at mom's work and see if there's anything on them. Alright?"_

_Jack nodded lightly._

_"You remember what you're real last name is though? That's probably going to be the most important thing on finding out anything."_

_"I remember." Jack answered. "My real last name is Darely and I'm from Boston."_

_"Boston? I thought your birth certificate said you were from Lansing." Bobby exclaimed._

_"The certificate is fake." Jack replied looking at the photo again. "I'm not from Lansing. I was born in Boston just like Billy and Joe. The night that we were seperated I was right away put in foster care cause those people thought that being around my brother's would ruin me or something. Next thing I know I'm in Lansing and getting new papers made because no one bothered to grab my real ones. Everything on the certificate is a lie."_

_"Did mom know?" Bobby asked softly._

_"Yea, she did. But when she tried looking for my real certificate she couldn't find anything. So we just settled on this one. But she knew where I was really from and what really happened. She didn't care about it. She just saw a kid who needed her help."_

_"That's exactly the way I feel right now too Jack." Bobby said. "I still see you as my baby brother. I don't think of you any different. You hear me? Darely, Mercer, whatever, you're still my little brother."_

_Jack nodded with a faint smile._

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Bobby looked at Billy with a bit of surprise.

"How do I know you're telling the truth about being Jack's brother?" Bobby asked. "What city was Jack born in?"

"Boston." Billy answered. "The reason that Jack didn't get to grow up with us was because our dumba** dad got arrested when Jack was four. Stupid pigs seperated Jack from us and we never saw him again. We've been looking for him ever since but could never find him. Wasn't until a few days ago that we found out he was adopted, got a new last name and moved to a different city that we realized that was why we couldn't find him."

Bobby didn't want to admit that he was a bit impressed. Billy had said everything that Jack had told him just last night about what happened to him before becoming a Mercer.

But he wasn't going to let his guard down.

"And how do I know _that's_ the truth?" Bobby asked. "How do I know you didn't just find out about Jack some other way?"

"Then I guess you don't see the Darely family resemblance." Billy said.

Bobby wasn't blind. He noticed it the second Billy had looked up at him. He and Joe both looked almost exactly like Jack. The facial features were too similar for anyone not to consider them related.

"Ultimate proof for me then. Jack's got something from when he lived in Boston. What is it?" Bobby asked.

"A picture." Billy answered after a few seconds of silence. "A picture of the three of us as kids. It was our mother's favorite picture before she died and that's why I gave it to him."

Bobby felt his grip on his gun loosen a bit. He couldn't believe that this guy answered all of his questions correctly. Everything that Jack had told him was repeated by Billy.

"Billy..."

All eyes turned to Jack who was starting to come around and was being helped into a sitting position by Angel. He still looked a little out of it but was quickly coming to his senses when he realized Bobby was pointing a gun at the two Darley brother's.

"Bobby, no. They're my brother's." Jack pleaded as he struggled to stand.

Bobby looked back at Billy and Joe. He wasn't totally sure if he could trust them but Jack was claiming that these two are his brother's. And he didn't want to look bad in front of his baby brother.

With a sigh, Bobby lowered his gun.

Billy and Joe moved forward to Jack who was now standing on his own.

"Can we trust them?" Angel whispered now standing next to Bobby.

"Let's go by ear on this one." Bobby answered. "See it from Jack's point of view and then decide."

"Look at you kid. You grew up." Billy mused looking at Jack.

"So did you guys." Jack said before heavily embracing his older brother. The gesture was returned by Billy and Joe joined in.

Jack tried to hold his tears back but failed. "I never thought I'd see you guys again." he sobbed.

"I promised I'd find you no matter what Jack. I never gave up." Billy said managing to keep himself from shedding any tears. He pulled back a little and looked at Jack. "I kept my promise."

"I remember." Jack said wiping his tears away. "You made that promise when those cops were taking me away from you guys. I can't believe how long it's been."

"Sixteen years Jackie." Joe said.

Bobby bit the inside of his mouth when he heard that. That was the nickname he, Angel and Jerry had been calling Jack all the years that he'd been a Mercer. It was weird hearing a total stranger say it as if it were as casual as saying hello.

"When did you guys get here?" Jack asked.

"Just this morning kid." Billy answered. "Drove straight from Boston with the guys. You remember them?"

"How could I forget?" Jack answered. "They here too?"

"Nah, they're back at a motel getting some sleep. We drove through the night to be here by morning." Joe answered.

"Have you eaten anything then?"

"Not really."

"Come on then. We have plenty to eat."

"Jack, you sure about this?" Billy asked. "I mean we just showed up and caught you in the middle of something with your...brother's."

Jack looked over to Bobby with 'the look'.

The oldest brother knew the look Jack was giving him and groaned deep down. Jack always used the lost puppy eyes trick to get what he wanted and it _always_ worked.

But for once Bobby was going to let this go by without question. He wanted to know more about Billy and Joe if he was ever going to be totally convinced.

"They can stay for a while but I'd like to have a private word with Billy first."

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Bobby closed the door and motioned for Billy to sit on one of the chairs. The gang leader sat and Bobby leaned against the window frame

"Do I come off as untrusting or something?" Billy asked.

"Honestly, yes and no." Bobby answered. "Part of me doesn't trust you because you did admit that you're a gang leader. I kinda grew up in the streets too so I know what kind of life that is. You showed up out of nowhere and claim to be Jack's older brother. Don't get me wrong, you do look just like him and that's really what's got me believing that you're related. The part of me that does trust you is because Jack's so happy to see you and Joe. It takes something like that to make the kid happy. Plus, I saw that you weren't being the least bit hostle toward him and you did explain everything exactly the way Jack told me."

"So what's wrong?" Billy asked.

"Look, I'm willing to go out on a limb here for Jack. I've never seen him so happy before. So, as long as Jack will be safe I'm willing to let you and Joe stay as long as you want and get reaquainted with him. There's just something you gotta know first."

"What's that?"

"Do you know about Evelyn Mercer? The woman who adopted Jack and the rest of us."

"I heard about her and I heard what happened a few days ago. Sorry it happened." Billy answered.

"Well, we found out that someone had placed a hit on her and that's why she was shot. Jack's not showing it but he's taking it real hard. Evelyn was the very person he needed after all the s**t he went through as a kid."

Billy stood up and looked straight at Bobby.

"Do...do you know what happened to him before he was adopted?" he asked.

Bobby lightly sighed. "I don't know the whole thing. Jack refuses to talk about it because it messed him up real bad. When he was first brought here, he had nightmares for nearly a month straight. I'd hear him screaming in the middle of the night because he was so scared of whatever he was dreaming about. From what I was told from Evelyn or figured out for myself, Jack's been abused in every way imaginable. Physical, mental, sexual...It was a full five months before he actually started talking to us about anything. But Evelyn somehow got to the kid and got him to see that he was safe here. When she finalized the adoption, I don't know, it just seemed to finally click in Jack's mind that he was finally in a safe place. He opened up more and became a different person altogether."

Billy lightly sighed.

"I never expected anyone in my family to go through something like that." he said. "So...this Evelyn has been like a savior to him?"

"Yeah. To all of us. If it weren't for her, Jack may have been killed before he was even ten or would have turned out worse than me. And I'm pretty bad. He wants to know what happened to our mother but I'm making sure that he's not in any kind of danger."

"Then I wanna help." Billy offered. "Evelyn's done the very thing that I haven't been able to all these years. Take care of Jack. She gave him the life he needed and saved his life. The way I can thank her is by helping figure out what happened to her. My boys and I can help if you want us to. I can even make sure one of them is always with Jack so he won't be alone at any time."

"You sure you'd wanna get involved with something like this?" Bobby asked. "I don't know how bad Boston is but Detroit is pretty bad if you're not careful."

"I'm sure." Billy answered. "If it wasn't for your mother than Jack probably would be those things you said. Him and Joe are all I have in this d**n world and I don't want to lose either one of them. The way I can thank your mother for taking care of Jack is to clear what happened to her. It can also be my way to thank you for taking care of Jack and watchin' out for him. You're the kind of big brother he needed. The kind I wanted to be for him before those stinkin' pigs took him away."

"You still can." Bobby said. "Look, because it would mean so much to Jack I'll let you stay and if you want to help us clear up what happened to our mom than fine. As long as you promise that Jack will be safe then we should be good."

"Believe me, that's a promise that if I broke I would willingly pay for with my life. I'd never let anything happen to Jack."

"Alright then. It'll obviously take us a little time to get use to each other but you're welcome here at the Mercer house." Bobby said extending a hand.

Billy reached out and shook Bobby's hand before they both went back inside.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

"Billy's right. You did grow up." Joe said messing Jack's hair.

"Genetic trait." Jack replied. "You guys obviously had a growth spurt too."

"Yeah. Mine sucked." Joe said with a nod of remembrance before they all heard the front door opened and Bobby and Billy reappeared.

Jack stood and looked like he was expecting an explanation of where the two were.

"We just talked is all Jackie." Bobby explained. "Angel, you and me got stuff to take care of. Jack you can stay here with Billy and Joe and get reaquainted."


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**By: MysticFantasy**

.

.

"You sure about leaving our brother alone with them?" Angel asked sitting in the passenger seat.

"Not completely." Bobby answered. "But it's obvious this Billy guy wants to prove himself so I'm giving him the chance. Jack can take care of himself if something goes wrong. He's still a Mercer and the fastest runner out of us. He can get away if he needs to."

"I don't know man. Jack is random when it comes to his feelings and stuff. You sure these guys won't just mess with him?"

"It's only because of the resemblance that I believe they're related and Jack did admit that they're his brother's. When I talked to Billy he said that he would never let anything happen to Jack. He promised he wouldn't. I'm going to give him a chance to prove himself. If he really means what he says then when we come back Jack should be just fine."

"I hope you're right man." Angel said.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

"He wants me to prove something, doesn't he?" Billy asked knowingly.

"Just if he can trust you to be around me alone." Jack answered. "You really gotta prove yourself to Bobby to get him to trust you."

"Just like you Billy." Joe commented.

"Well he doesn't have anything to worry about. You know that I'd never hurt ya kid." Billy said.

Jack nodded with a smile.

"So Jackie, tell us what's happened over the past few years." Billy said as Jack brought out plates for his two brother's.

"A lot of s**t. I don't really like to talk about it." Jack answered as they sat together at the table.

"That's alright." Billy said leaving his plate empty while Joe filled his. "So...how do you like bein' a Mercer?"

"It's pretty neat." Jack answered. "The Mercer's are well known for various reasons. But I haven't forgotten about being a Darley."

"Atta boy." Billy said with a smile.

"How much has Boston changed?" Jack asked.

"A lot Jackie." Joe answered swallowing his food. "Billy's large and in-charge now. Not really surprising though."

"So I guess that means you have the shop then?" Jack asked.

"Wow Jack. Surprised you remember that place." Billy said. "Yeah, I have it. It's our main place of profit."

Jack lowered his eyes a little.

"You're not into that stuff. Are ya?" Billy asked knowingly.

Jack looked up.

"Some of the...foster homes I was in..." Jack said slowly. "Stuff got forced onto me for 'reasons'. I was...used."

Joe and Billy both looked at Jack with shock as he choked out the last word.

"They found me easier to use when I was drugged." Jack said with a slight shiver. "When Evelyn took me in I got help and got clean. Smoking is the worst thing I do now."

"D**n Jack." Joe whispered placing a gentle hand on Jack's shoulder.

"It's in the past now." Jack said. "I try to forget and I do for the most part."

"So how are these guys as brother's to you?" Billy asked changing the subject.

"Bobby's really protective but pretty rash, Angel is like his wing man but he's always got your back and then there's Jerry who's always taught me to think things through. They've all been really good to me over the years."

"Sounds like all of you are pretty close." Joe said with a light sigh.

"Guess so." Jack agreed.

"Guess that means you don't want to come back and be a full Darley again." Billy added.

"Billy, I..."

"I understand if you don't want to Jack." Billy interrupted. "You went through hell and this Evelyn got you out of it. I understand if you want to keep the Mercer name but..."

"Part of me does want to Billy." Jack declared. "But, the guys and I...we're trying to figure out what happened to her. We know that what happened to her wasn't random. We know that something else is up."

"Bobby mentioned something like that." Billy said. "I offered my help if he wants it but I'm not sure if he really does accept it."

"Bobby's not the kind to accept help from _anyone_." Jack replied. "To be honest I'm surprised he hasn't sent me back to New York yet."

"New York?" Joe repeated.

"After I graduated from high school I left to New York. My band and I are coming close to getting our big break." Jack explained.

"I knew you'd make something of yourself kid." Billy said. "I'm trying to get Joe to do something but he's too lazy."

"Hey!"

Jack lightly chuckled.

"Look, Jackie," Billy started. "I can see that you've become real attached to these people. Evelyn Mercer was able to give you the life you needed after you were taken from us and went through hell on Earth. Hate to say it but it's actually better that you ended up here. If you had stayed with us..."

"You probably would have been worse than what you told us." Joe finished with a lightly shrug.

"I know you would have if you had been around daddy dearest." Billy said. "That fat f**k was let out early."

Jack's eyes went wide.

"Don't worry Jackie. After he was let out some bad stuff went down and he's not around to torment us anymore." Billy said. "He had some enemies and one of them did us a favor and took him out."

Jack lightly sighed in relief to know that his birth father wasn't around. He remembered being tormented a few times by him but remembered even more how Billy had taken the beatings for him and Joe after hiding them from their father.

"So...how long are you guys staying?" Jack asked.

"As long as we feel like it." Billy answered. "I got a few guys back in Boston taking care of things while I'm here. I know I want to stay here long enough to get reaquainted with my baby brother."

"You're gonna be here for a while then." Jack stated knowingly.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

"And you left him alone with them?" Jerry exclaimed.

"Jack can take care of himself if he needs to Jer." Bobby answered. "Billy...I don't know why but I get a trusting vibe from him."

"Probably cause he's like you." Angel declared. "I got that same over protective big brother look from him to Jack that you have. Not to mention, he didn't raise his voice to you and he didn't show an ounce of fear to the Michigan Mauler. He's got to be one tough mother to not be scared of you Bobby."

"Or he's never heard of the famous Mercer's." Jerry said half sarcastically as he sat on the couch next to Angel. "You said he was from Boston."

"But he knew my name." Bobby stated. "Appearantly, he does know me. That's the part of me that's questioning him and the other guy. And he told Jack that they have their gang here somewhere. But Jack said that he remembers those guys. I don't know. I'm all over the place with this one."

"I'm just concerned for Jack." Jerry declared. "I mean, his blood brother's just show up out of nowhere and you leave him alone with them. You know how emotional he gets and how he can't think straight when he's like that."

"Jack is definately thinking clearly right now." Bobby said. "I saw the way he was looking at them, the way he was acting around them...He knows what he's doing. I should be asking how the two of you are handling this new news."

"Bobby, how do you think we're handling it?" Jerry asked. "Jack's been our baby brother since he was eight. Twelve years of having him as our baby brother and having him to ourselves. Now out of nowhere his blood family shows up. I'm concerned and worried."

"Same here." Angel agreed. "How do we know that we really can trust Billy and Joe? They're from a place almost as worse as Detroit. They showed up looking like gangsters and even said they have their gang somewhere close by. Not to mention Jackie passed out just at the sight of them."

"Probably because he hasn't seen his real family in sixteen years Angel." Bobby stated standing. "Look, I don't really like this as much as you guys but Jack was so happy to see them. We all know that Jack's taking it real hard with what happened to Ma. This could take his mind off of it for a while. Let's talk to Billy and Joe more and see where to go from there. Alright?"

"Alright man, but I'm still not sure if this is such a good idea." Jerry said.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**By: MysticFantasy**

.

.

"D**n, thought I was seeing triple for a sec." Jerry exlcaimed walking into the living room with Angel and Bobby.

"Hey Jerry. Guess Bobby told you what's going on." Jack said.

"When has his mouth ever been shut?" Jerry replied.

"Hey!"

Ignoring Bobby's outcry, Jack decided to introduce his brother's.

"Jerry, this is Billy and Joe Darley. Guys, this is Jerry, the second oldest."

"Nice to meet you." Jerry said shaking hands with Billy and Joe.

"Same here." Joe said.

"It's nice to meet you Jerry. Wish we could stay longer but we gotta go check on our boys. We've been gone longer than we thought." Billy said.

"You'll come back later. Right?" Jack asked.

"Course Jackie. You got my cell number. Just call if you want to meet somewhere or just wanna hang out." Billy said.

Jack nodded and hugged his brother before hugging Joe.

The two walked out the front door with Jack slowly trailing behind them and then standing on the front steps as he watched them climb into Billy's car. The two Darley brother's waved to Jack who waved back and watched as they slowly drove off and vanished down the street.

"You know you can hang out with them later if you want." Bobby said standing in the doorway.

"I know." Jack said with a nod.

"Alright then. Come back inside. It's freezing out there." Bobby said.

Jack listened and went back inside.

"Man, they look just like you Cracker Jack. Especially Billy." Jerry said.

"What'd ya'll do while we were gone?" Angel asked.

"Just caught up." Jack answered. "They told me how things are going in Boston. I told them how I've been."

"And what about you going back to being a full Darley?" Angel suddenly asked.

"I knew it!" Jack huffed before heading to the stairs. "I knew you guys would bring that up!"

"Jack, he didn't mean it like that." Bobby called after his brother.

"Then what did it mean?" Jack demanded stopping halfway up the stairs. "Are you thinking that I'm right away going to give up the Mercer name because I found out my real family is still alive?"

"We're not thinking that Jack." Jerry said. "It's just...They showed up out of nowhere after all this time. You need to be careful about this."

"Be careful?" Jack repeated. "They are my blood brother's, Jerry! I know exactly who they are. Billy protected me before I was taken away. He hid me and Joe from our mental father so we wouldn't get beaten within an inch of our lives! Billy's the only reason I even lived to see four. You really think he'd just show up and hurt me after all this time?"

"Jack, he admitted that he's a gang leader now." Bobby stated. "From Boston of all places. It's a worse version of Detroit. How safe do you think you would be with someone like that in your life?"

"I survived being around the three of you for twelve years, didn't I?" Jack said in a low and cold voice before marching up the rest of the stairs. A slam was heard a second later before the low beat of rock music started to play.

"Great." Bobby sighed rubbing the back of his head.

"Look, let's just give him some time to cool down and clear his head. Then we'll go talk to him about all of this." Jerry suggested.

"That's about all we can do right now." Bobby replied. "When he's mad he listens to that fairy music and when he's calmed down he turns it off. When we don't hear it anymore we'll go talk to him."

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Billy shut the door, locked it and watched Joe fall face down onto his half of the bed.

"Lazy a**."

"Hey, you can't tell me you're not as tired as I am." Joe replied turning his head see his older brother remove his jacket. "You've been up for hours. You need to get some sleep bro."

"I know. You should too."

"Believe me, I'm way ahead of you on that."

Billy smirked as he laid down on the available half of the bed. They both laid in silence for a while until Joe spoke.

"I can't believe how much he's changed."

"I know." Billy agreed. "He's not that little kid we had before he was taken away. He's all grown up."

"Think it was smart of us to just drop in like this?" Joe asked. "He was obviously shocked to see that we were both still alive and those other three didn't look like they wanted us around him. Especially that Bobby guy."

"They can think all they want about us." Billy replied. "We know that we won't hurt Jack and we told them the truth."

"Uh, you didn't about dad." Joe reminded. "You told Jack that an enemy took him out."

"Yeah, that was the truth. If it had to be either of us, I'd rather it have been me. I saw our 'dear' dad put you and Jack through hell before he got busted and I wasn't about to let him get away with it."

"Billy, you managed to hide us from him most of the time. I saw you take beatings you shouldn't have. I know Jack did too."

"Either way, Jack is better off knowing that Bones isn't around for him to be scared of anymore. He can relax about that."

"No agrument." Joe said through a light sigh. "So what are we gonna do about those other three? I doubt they're going to let Jack be around us alone any longer than they did today. If anything, they'll probably handcuff themselves to him if we're around so he's not alone with us."

"I don't know Joe." Billy answered. "Each side is claiming Jackie to be their's but Jack's the one caught in the middle of it all. He was our brother first and now he's stuck with another family. He's the youngest of two families now. Gotta let him decide about what he wants to do."

"Man, I don't wanna lose our little brother again. Not after we finally found him after all these years."

"Me either." Billy agreed. "Let's wait for Jackie to call us and then see where to go from there. Get some sleep."

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Bobby lead Jerry and Angel up the stairs and they all stood together outside the closed door to Jack's room. After three hours of the exact same rock beat, the music had finally vanished and the three took it as a sign that Jack had calmed down a little.

They had waited another half hour before agreeing to try to talk with their youngest.

"Jack? Jackie? Can we talk?" Bobby asked through the closed door only to get no answer.

With a small sigh, Bobby opened the door and walked in with Jerry and Angel close behind.

The three felt guilt creep into them when they saw Jack sitting on his bed with his back against the wall looking at a photo in his hands with tears quietly streaming down his face. His eyes were red and slightly puffy, indicating that he had most likely been crying all this time.

"Jack,"

"Would it be so bad for them to come back into my life and be my brother's again?" Jack suddenly snapped.

"Jack, we didn't mean anything like that." Angel said.

"Then what is it?" Jack demanded. "Why are you being this way? They were all I had before I came here. Before I became a Mercer. When I was taken from them I lost all hope I had until mom adopted me. All these years I thought I'd never see them again. I even thought they were dead. Can't you see how much it means to me to see them again?"

"Jack, of course we do." Jerry said sitting next to his brother and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Then why are you guys acting like this?" Jack demanded weakly.

"Jack, listen to us." Bobby said walking over and sitting on the other side of his brother. "This is a confusing situation but we're just being this way because we've been your older brother's for twelve years. We've been the ones taking care of you and watching out for you as our baby brother all this time..."

"How do you think it makes Billy and Joe feel?" Jack interrupted. "I was only with them for four years and they never got to be that way toward me because we were seperated and I never saw them again. We missed out on so much."

"Jack," Bobby started. "This is something we can't get into. It's your real family not ours. Yes, I think of each of you as my real blood brother's but there's always the stinkin' reality of it all. You were born a Darley and then became a Mercer. We all have to accept that. This choice is up to you Jack. We can't make it for you."

"I never said anything about going back to being a Darley." Jack stated quietly.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**By: MysticFantasy**

.

.

Jack stared at his brother's confused faces.

"You mean, you don't want to go back to being a full Darley?" Angel asked.

"Part of me does but the other part of me knows that this is my home because mom made me her son. I carry the Mercer name the same way I carried the Darley name. Billy and Joe have been my blood family all my life but you guys have been brother's to me longer than they have. I can't just up and leave the Mercer family. Not after everything you guys have done for me. Not after everything mom had done for me."

"So you're staying a Mercer?" Bobby asked.

"I want to keep the Mercer name but I want to accept Billy and Joe back in my life." Jack answered. "I _am_ going to accept them back in my life. I just don't want you guys to hate me for it."

"Jack...we can't be mad at you for being with your blood family." Bobby said. "You were with them before you were with us. I guess we just have to come to the realization that you're the baby of two families now and we're gonna have to learn to share you. Something I'm not really fond of."

"Sharing people?"

Bobby ruffled Jack's hair. "I was never fond of the possible thought of having to share my brother's with anyone else. Except Ma of course. I'm into that whole 'What's mine is mine. Touch it and die' thing. Hence, that was the reason I never let anyone mess with you guys when you were younger."

"Well that explains why no one f***ed with us most of the time." Angel stated.

"Anyway, same thing applies now." Bobby continued. "You guys are my brother's and I don't like the thought of anyone f***ing with any of you. And with you being the baby Jackie, you're the one I worry about most."

"But I know who these two are." Jack replied. "I know they would never hurt me in any way. I just want to be able to be around my biological brother's and know that you aren't lurking around somewhere with a gun in your hand and aiming between their eyes."

"Who? Me?"

"Bobby, I'm serious."

"I am too Jack. I saw you passed out after seeing them. It obviously took an emotional toll on you. I don't want this to mess with you in other ways. Yeah I understand that they're the family you had before us but people change over time."

"They haven't changed the way they are toward me." Jack stated. "I know they haven't. I was talking to them as easily as if I were talking to any one of you. I know that you guys will deny it but Billy and Joe are a lot like you three."

"As if!"

Jack wiped his tears away and looked at the three.

"Please, just give them a chance?"

"I'll give them a chance Jackie. Only because you asked though." Jerry said. "I'll be honest with you. I'm a little sketchy on this but if they're what you say they are then I should be proven wrong soon enough."

"Same for me." Angel said.

"Me too." Bobby added.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Joe stirred and rolled onto his side. His eyes cracked open and he saw Billy's phone vibrating on the nightstand. He reached over, ready to turn the phone off when he checked the I.D. to see that it was Jack calling.

Fully awake, Joe jumped off the bed and went outside to take the call.

"Hey Jack." he greeted.

_"Hey Joe. You busy?"_

"No. Just woke up from a nap but it's nothing to worry about. What's up?"

_"I wanted to ask if you and Billy wanted to hang out tonight."_

"With Bobby, Jerry and Angel?" Joe asked leaning against the wall next to the door.

_"Yeah. They want to give you and Billy a chance so they want to hang out tonight. Get to know you guys more. Will you? Please."_

Joe mentally sighed. He knew Billy would get onto him about making this decision without talking to him but this was their long lost baby brother. The one they haven't seen in sixteen years.

Billy would understand.

_"Joe?"_

"I'm here Jackie. Yeah. Me and Billy will hang out with you and the guys."

_"Awesome. This really means a lot to me."_

"I know." Joe said with a small smile. "Gotta let you know right now though, if the guys find out they'll probably follow. Especially if you want to meet at a bar."

_"That's fine with me. And yeah, it's a bar. It's a place called Johnny G's. Me, Bobby, Jerry and Angel hang out there a lot. Around eight?"_

"Sounds good to me Jackie." Joe said.

_"Great. I'll text you the directions. Can't wait to see you bro."_

"Same here kid. I'll see you tonight." Joe said before the call ended. With a light sigh he went back into the motel room. Billy hadn't moved an inch. The actions of the early morning had taken their toll on him.

_Better get this over with._ Joe thought to himself walking over to his older brother.

"Billy? Billy. Wake up."

The older brother groaned tiredly and woke up.

"What?" He asked.

"Jack just called."

"What? When?" Billy asked sitting up.

"Like a minute ago." Joe answered handing the cell phone back to his brother. "Wants us to hang out at a bar tonight."

"And you told him we'd be there. Right?" Billy asked with a knowing look.

"Yeah."

Billy lightly nodded. "Fine with me. We do need to spend time with him. You tell him the guys might tag along though?"

"Yeah and he said that it was fine." Joe answered and grabbed his bag from the floor.

"Alright. Since you made the choice for everyone, go wake everyone up and let 'em know we're going out tonight." Billy said.

"Man. Heco is hard as hell to wake up." Joe stated heading out the door.

Billy grinned and grabbed his own bag and walked into the bathroom while locking the door behind him.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Bobby walked into the bathroom right as the shower started behind the closed shower curtain.

"Make sure to save some water for Angel, princess." he said walking over to the sink to shave.

"You're one to talk." Jack replied. "Angel nearly isn't as bad as you."

"So what'd Billy and Joe say?" Bobby asked grabbing the shaving cream.

"They'll meet up with us." Jack answered. "The guys with them might show up too though. Please promise you won't shoot anyone."

"Not sure about that Jackie." Bobby said after spreading the shaving cream and grabbing his razor. "I'll try but I'm not gonna promise anything. And I'm only saying that for the safety of you, Jerry and Angel."

Bobby heard Jack mutter something but he couldn't quite make it out.

"So what time?"

"Eight at Johnny's." Jack answered.

"Alright." Bobby agreed and ran the razor under his chin.

"Bobby?"

"Yeah Jackie?"

"You really think Billy wants to help with what happened to mom?" Jack asked.

Bobby lightly sighed as he rinsed his razor in the sink and continued to shave.

"He seemed like he meant it. Ask him when you see him again tonight." he answered. "It would probably help to have more people on our side if what we think is true."

"I'll ask him." Jack vowed.

"Good." Bobby said wiping away the last remains of the shaving cream and examined his now clean trimmed beard. "Don't use up all the hot water. You know how Angel cries about that."

"Like I said, you're one to talk." Jack replied.

Bobby suddenly grinned and walked over to the toilet. He pushed the handle down, making the toilet flush and walked out as Jack yelled...

"You f***er!"

The oldest brother laughed outloud.

_Gotta enjoy having him to ourselves while we can._ he thought heading back into his room.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Jack walked into his room and shut the door before heading to his dresser to find some clothes. There was still a few hours before they would be going to the bar but he couldn't help but feel like time was running out at a rapid speed.

He removed his towel and slipped on a pair of boxers before going to his closet. Being a rocker, he had classic punk rock style clothes that he always looked good in.

There was still a few hours before they would have to meet at the bar so he changed into a part of loose shorts and a large shirt.

He laid down on his bed and stared up at the ceiling.

_How _will_ things turn out tonight?_ Jack asked himself as he shut his eyes.

He lightly sighed before allowing himself to fall into unconsciousness.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

_The sound of young children laughing could be heard throughout the whole house. The three young boys were the only ones in the house so the oldest knew they were safe for the time being._

_"Billy." the youngest laughed as he jumped onto his oldest brother's back._

_"Jackie, you're getting heavy." Billy chuckled shifting his weight to be able to hold his youngest brother in a piggy-back style._

_"How come you carry him like that?"_

_"Cause he's smaller than you Joey." Billy answered._

_"No fair." Joe declared._

_Jack laughed. _

_Suddenly, the light in the room started to flash red and blue._

_"What's happening Billy?" Jack asked._

_He got silence as an answer. He looked toward his oldest brother and found himself in the arms of an adult. He looked behind him and saw the face of a police officer._

_"Jack!" someone shouted._

_"Billy!" Jack shouted looking around. He saw a cop car holding his two brother's who were looking out the window toward him. The car started diving away with the two._

_"Billy! Joe! Don't go!"_

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Jack gasped deeply as his eyes snapped open.

He sighed heavily when he realized he'd just been dreaming about the time he was taken from his brother's.

He realized the reason he woke up was because someone was knocking on the door downstairs but heard someone answer it.

He pulled himself to his feet and decided to get dressed.

"Hey there Cracker Jack."

Jack turned and smiled when he saw Jerry standing in his doorway.

"Hey Jer. What's up?"

"Not much. Just thought I'd come spend some more time with you guys since Camille took the girls somewhere." Jerry answered.

"Did Bobby tell you about tonight?" Jack asked looking through his dresser.

"Yeah, he did." Jerry answered. "You nervous?"

"Like no tomorrow." Jack answered grabbing a pair of socks and yanking them on his feet. "Tried to get Bobby to promise not to shoot anyone but he basically refused."

"He just wants to make sure that you're ok. You know that Cracker Jack." Jerry said watching as Jack looked through his closet for a shirt.

"I know." Jack replied pulling on a long sleeved grey shirt before putting a red shirt with short black sleeves on over it. He slipped on a pair of jeans before grabing his comb from his dresser and started to slick his hair back.

"What are you hoping will happen?" Jerry asked.

"No one gets shot." Jack answered.

"Jack, you've been our baby brother for how long and you still can't predict Bobby?" Jerry chuckled.

"I know he means well but...come on Jerry. You've known him longer than me. How would you be if you were exactly like Bobby and I was around Billy and Joe after they suddenly appeared out of nowhere?"

"Ok, you've got a point." Jerry said with a nod.

"Exactly." Jack continued. "I just want the night to go by where everyone gets along or at least agrees on certain things without anyone leaving because they have to go to the E.R. I haven't been around my brother's in sixteen years and I just want to catch up and hang out with them."

"I think I can understand how you feel Jack." Jerry said. "If I were in your shoes I'm sure I would be acting the same as you. Just wanting to rebond with my blood family. Look, I'll help you try to keep things cool tonight cause...I admit, there's something telling me that I can trust Billy and Joe around you."

"You can." Jack said. "The way you guys are with me...they're exactly the same way. Just watch. Tonight you guys are going to find out you have a lot more in common than you realize. If Billy and Joe are the same as I remember than all of you will get along soon enough."

"Just remember what we talked about earlier Jackie." Jerry said.

"How can I forget? You guys remind me every second of the day about it." Jack replied.

"Cause you're a fairy." Bobby stated from the hallway as he went downstairs.

"A**hole!" Jack shouted only to hear Bobby laugh.

"You know he's more concerned than he lets on." Jerry said.

"I noticed when he had his gun nearly down Billy's throat." Jack said slipping his rings on his fingers.

"You girls ready?" Bobby called from downstairs. "We gotta see Ma's attorney in half an hour!"

"We're coming." Jerry shouted before turning back to Jack. "You ready?"

Jack nodded as he grabbed his leather jacket.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Billy turned the tv off and went back to his bag. He reached into the side pocket and pulled out the photo of him and his brother's when they were children. He was glad that Jack had the copy he'd given him when they were little.

It was already around six thirty and the whole gang was getting ready to go to the bar. All of them were glad that the first place they were going to was a place to drink.

Billy and Joe were just anxious to see Jack again. They still couldn't believe how much he'd grown even though they knew he would change after sixteen years.

It almost seemed like that small and cheerful child they once knew had vanished and was now a totally different person altogether.

They'd missed out on so much but Billy was determined to make it all up.

He put the picture away and grabbed a shirt right as Joe walked out of the bathroom with a puff of steam trailing out from behind him.

"Priss." Billy chuckled slipping a black shirt on.

"Whatever." Joe pouted.

"Just make sure you're wearing something nice. But not too nice. Not sure what's going to happen tonight. Especially at a bar of all places."

"If Jackie's playing ref than nothing bad should happen." Joe said digging through his own bag.

"I just want to spend more time with the kid." Billy said. "If the others are there I don't mind. As long as we can spend more time with our Jackie."

"Remember how you would always sneak him those cookies he loves?" Joe asked with a fond tone of remembrance.

Billy weakly smiled. "Yeah. He loved chocolate chip the most." he lightly sighed. "It was also the last thing I gave him before the cops showed up."

"You really want to help him figure out what happened to Evelyn?" Joe asked.

"I do." Billy answered grabbing his chain necklace. "She gave him the life he needed. One we wouldn't have been able to give him. She helped our Jackie and now we can return the favor."

Joe smiled.

"Check if the boys are ready. We leave in fifteen."


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**By: MysticFantasy**

**.**

**.**

"Let's get goin'." Billy ordered shutting the door to the motel room.

The members of his gang cheered happily knowing it was time to go to the bar. Billy climbed behind the wheel of his car and started the engine as two of his gang climbed into the backseat with Joe sitting up front.

He was a little nervous about what was going to happen but all he was trying to think about was seeing his baby brother again.

It was going to be a very interesting night.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Jack felt incredibly nervous as they drove toward Johnny G's bar. It was only half an hour before Billy and Joe would show up and his mind was filled with possible ways the night might end.

Physical and/or verbal fight, bullets flying through the air, rushing to the emergency room...

One of his biggest fears was that the Mercer's and Darley's wouldn't accept a sort of truce or friendship. He desperately wants all of his brother's to get along but that was so much easier said than done.

One thing Jack knew about both his oldest brother's was that they shared fiery tempers that outdid anyone else he'd ever met. Having them around each other trying to claim him to one family name was surely going to be explosive and chaotic unless they came to an agreement.

Jack looked outside the window of Bobby's car and saw the familiar bar that he'd been getting into since he was seventeen.

Bobby had been the only one to allow him in the bar but hadn't allowed him to drink until he was nineteen almost twenty. The first two years Jack had just been somewhat of Bobby's watchful eye.

If Bobby was at all too drunk to walk or drive Jack would make sure he'd get home safely and sometimes came up with an excuse or two to tell their mother about why they were out so late.

Jack was certain that she didn't believe any of them but she had seemed happy enough to know that at least he hadn't been drinking and that Bobby hadn't gotten into any more trouble.

Climbing out of the car, Jack followed his brother's into the bar. He was greeted with the familiar smell of smoke and booze. Music was playing in the background while noise from any television was twice as loud and he lights were dim. Making it the perfect atmosphere for drinking.

The four brother's walked over to the bar and grabbed available seats.

Bobby caught Jack checking his watch for the time.

"Nervous Jackie?" he asked as the bartender placed shot glasses before them.

"Yeah." Jack answered with a nod.

"Don't be nervous man." Jerry said. "Everything's gonna turn out alright."

"Can't help it." the youngest replied.

"Look Jack, we'll be on our best behavior. Promise." Bobby vowed.

"You gotta mean it for me to believe you Bobby." Jack said with a serious look.

"I promise Jack. Really."

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Billy shut the car door and looked at the bar before him while the rest of his gang gathered around him.

"Listen up boys, drink whatever you want. Just make sure that you're still good enough to chase down lowlifes if we have to."

A round of agreements was heard.

"And make sure that you show Jack the same respect you show me and Joe. He's our little brother so he's third in charge and will take over if it comes down to it."

"Whatever you say man." Bodie said on behalf of the gang.

"Good. Let's get inside then." Billy said heading for the door with Joe close behind him.

Billy opened the door with the guys following behind him. He slowly lead the way toward the front bar where a few people were sitting.

Joe scanned the room to see if he could spot Jack and the other Mercer brother's but his eyes hadn't adjusted to the dim lighting yet.

"...Evelyn Mercer. Greatest mother four degenerate b******s ever had."

Billy walked toward where he heard the familiar voice and sure enough saw Jack sitting at the bar with Bobby, Jerry and Angel as they all downed glasses of whiskey.

"Jack." he called.

Said youngest brother turned around and smiled greatly when he saw Billy and Joe.

"You made it." he exclaimed hopping off the bar stool and embracing his brother's.

"You know I never break a promise Jack." Billy said releasing his brother from his embrace. "Remember any of these clowns?"

Jack looked over at the group of men standing behind his brother's but didn't remember any of them.

"Can't blame you for not remembering us kid. You were pretty little last time we say you. I'm Heco."

"I remember you now." Jack said with a grin. "You were the one who kept tying Billy's shoe laces together when he wasn't looking."

"You f***er." Billy exclaimed lightly shoving Heco who laughed.

Bobby, Jerry and Angel all stood as Jack got reaquainted with Billy's gang and friends. The three took in how the gang was acting around Jack and how their brother was behaving around them.

Jack was acting as if he'd always known the members of the Darley gang and was acting as comfortable around them as if he were around his own brother's.

Needless to say, it made them feel a little jealous.

When Jack had first gone to the Mercer house, he never said a word and it had taken months for him to get use to the people who would become his family.

Now here he was acting as if he'd always been around these people and could trust them as easily as he trusted his own brother's.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

"Jack drinks Jack. Jack drinks Jack."

"Kid, how can you handle alcohol so well?" Joe asked with a grin.

Jack shrugged before taking a drink of his whiskey.

"He's taking it better than you Joey." Billy commented.

"He is our brother." Joe stated.

Jerry noticed a look that Bobby was holding toward Billy and Joe and decided to change the subject.

"So...Jack mentioned that you guys own an auto body shop."

"Yeah. Sort of the family business." Joe said. "That's the reason that our own cars are always running so smooth and the paint jobs never wear off. We could give yours a paint job."

"Flames? On my Volvo? Thanks but no thanks."

Jack chuckled at Jerry's expression.

"So what about you guys? What do ya'll do for a living?" Joe asked.

"Well, I'm a business guy. Trying to start up local businesses and I'm part of the Union." Jerry said. "Angel's in the Marines and Bobby manages a strip joint somewhere."

"Can you get us in?" Joe joked making Jack laugh.

"If you want to endure a three hour drive to where I work." Bobby said.

"You drive back and forth every day?" Billy asked curiously.

"Actually, I've been staying there for a while. The...recent events are why I'm back." Bobby answered. "Plus, I need to spend time with my brother's."

Billy noticed Jack lightly smile hearing Bobby say he was going to spend time with his brother's. He was starting to get the idea that Bobby wasn't around as much as he made it seem.

"So, how long are you guys gonna be in town after everything is taken care of?" Angel asked ignoring the laughter coming from two tables over where Billy's gang was drinking.

"Well, we want to get reaquainted with Jackie. Spend a little time with him, just hang out...Guess it all depends." Billy answered.

"Understandable." Jerry said.

"Thanks Jack, you got the last of the booze." Bobby said holding up the empty bottle.

Jack played stupid and averted his eyes elsewhere.

"Don't play dumb." Bobby said before standing. "I'll get us more."

"I'll come with ya." Billy volunteered.

Together the two walked over to the bar where Bobby asked for another bottle of whiskey.

"Jack must get the ability to handle his drinks from our dad." Billy muttered with his eyes lowered. "He was a total drunk. Almost every day he was hammered on something. Probably how the three of us even came into existance."

"All this time I thought he could handle it from watching me all these years." Bobby said before turning serious. "I got word that there's a party goin' on tonight. A witness to the shooting may be there. We're gonna go see what he knows. You in?"

"Sure am. You letting Jack go too?" Billy asked.

"I don't want to take him. I'm scared something may happen and he could get hurt. But he's stubborn and he's gonna demand to go and help find out what's going on." Bobby replied.

"He must get being stubborn from me." Billy said. "If the both of us are there we can keep an eye on him. I'll get Joe to stay close to him too."

Bobby nodded.

"You still getting use to Jackie having us around?" Billy asked.

"Yeah, but I'm getting use to it."

Billy and Bobby both glanced at Jack who had his eyes lowered to his shot glass. He looked like he was expecting for them to go back to the table and tell him that this was the last time he was ever going to see his blood brother's.

"Look, Jack's the youngest of both our families now. He has your blood but he's got our name. Let's not make this about us and think about him and what he wants." Bobby said.

Billy nodded.

"You're right." he agreed. "I don't want to come back into my little brother's life trying to start trouble with his new family. He's already got a bad impression of us being around each other when we first met. I don't want to freak him out anymore than he already is."

"Then let's just put our differences aside and try to act like brother's ourselves. It would really mean a lot to Jack." Bobby said.

"Alright." Billy agreed.

"Ok. Come on. Let's get back to Jack."

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Hours later Bobby looked into Jack's room and saw the youngest lying on his bed looking up at the ceiling.

"Jack," Bobby spoke softly as he walked in. "You ok?"

"Yeah." Jack answered sitting up. "I'm glad that all of you got along tonight. Especially the way you and Billy scared the s**t out of that guy we grabbed."

"That's what happens when you need to find out something in a hurry Jackie. Besides, Angel was the one who popped him one in the mouth for talking so much. And you were right. About a lot of things." Bobby said. "The thing you were right about most was that all of us really are very protective of you. Billy and Joe didn't let you out their sight for a second."

"Told you." Jack said with a small smirk.

"Ok, you were right about that and I admit that Billy and Joe are pretty cool to hang out with. But you know that, when it comes to me, they still have a lot to prove in order for me to completely trust them. Especially with them being around you, Jerry and Angel."

"I know." Jack agreed with a single nod.

"Good. Tomorrow we'll go to the store and question the owner. See if we can see the servellance tape. Billy wants to come with us."

"Awesome."

"I just hope that him and Joe like hunting people down." Bobby said with a smirk.

"Dude, they're from Boston." Jack said through a yawn.

"Right. I keep forgetting. Well, get some sleep Jackie. Tomorrow's gonna be a busy day and you need to get all that booze out of your system you little alcoholic fairy."

Jack nodded and watched Bobby leave while closing the door behind him. The youngest looked at his nightstand and saw two frammed pictures. One of the Mercer family and the other of himself with Billy and Joe.

Tomorrow, although they would be investigating, he would be spending the day with all of his brother's.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Angel opened the door and stepped to the side to allow Billy to walk in.

"How can you guys not be cold?" Billy asked with a grin as he removed his jacket.

"We're use to it." Bobby said coming down the stairs. "Blizzards, snow, sleet..."

Billy lightly chuckled.

"Jack?" he asked.

"Out like a light." Bobbt answered. "He can drink but it catches up to him soon enough."

"Wish I had known that when he was little. Could never get him to take a nap." Billy said as they went into the living room.

"Before he passed out he told me that he was real glad that we got along tonight. And he was impressed with the way you and me handled the situation tonight." Bobby said taking a seat in the armchair.

"I was impressed with the way you got that punk to talk." Billy said sitting on the couch with Angel.

"That was always one of my favorite tactics. All you gotta do is spill a little gas and hold up a lit cigarette and you'll find out everything you need to know." Bobby said.

"Worked every time." Angel added with a tired grin.

"Angel you better get to sleep too. Loco Ono will probably start screeching if you don't get up there soon." Bobby said.

"Man, quit calling her that." Angel argued standing.

"What? She is crazy." Bobby said as Billy lightly chuckled.

"You're just jealous that you ain't got a girl." Angel muttered heading to the stairs.

"Wouldn't want one like La Vida Loca." Bobby said before Angel vanished to the second floor and he turned to Billy. "I'm warnin' ya right now man. Angel's girlfriend really should be locked in the crazy house. If you meet her you'll agree with me."

"I'll keep my guard up." Billy said.

"So tell me, what was Jack like when he was little?" Bobby asked. "When he came to us...It seemed like any little noise would literally give him a heart attack."

"He was a real good kid." Billy said with a tone of rememberance noticable in his voice. "He had a lot of energy. Couldn't get him to sit down for too long. Couldn't get him to take naps despite how young he was. If he saw me and Joey doin' something he'd always ask if he could help. I tried to keep him from seeing all of the things our dad did to us but he always figured something was going on. Especially when me or Joe suddenly had bruises the next day and we couldn't find a way to explain it. Then it started happening to him. In a lot of ways I'm kinda glad that those cops got him away. He didn't have to suffer under our dad's hand anymore."

"You were the one who plugged him, weren't you?" Bobby asked.

Billy hesitated for a moment before nodding.

"Yeah," he answered. "Happened when he was on some bad s**t. Joe was in charge of a block that night and the usual people didn't show up so he didn't get the usual haul. He brought it to our dad and he had a world class fit. He got mad at Joe, said he was stealing the money. I came in right when he knocked Joe down, got one of his guns ready and pointed it to Joe. Before I even knew it my gun was already in my hand and I had already fired. Got him right between the eyes. Broke those stupid glasses of his in half. Joe was a little freaked out for a while but I was too. I wasn't sorry for giving that f**k what he deserved after the way he treated us our whole lives but I was sorry that Joe had to see it happen."

"Think I would have done the same." Bobby said. "Some of the foster dads I had sound just like your dad. If I were in your place I know I would have done the same. Especially when it comes to protecting my brother's. Jack told us how you would hide him and Joe and take the beatings."

Billy nodded. "I hated seein my little brother's hurt. I hid them in places our dad wouldn't have been able to get them. I did what I had to to keep them safe."

"Jackie's right about us in a lot of ways." Bobby declared. "We watch out for our little brother's and do anything to protect them."

"Guess it's something that most older brother's share." Billy said.

"Guess so." Bobby agreed. "I'm gonna grab a beer. Want one?"

"Sure. You got a restroom though?"

"Yeah. It's upstairs. First door right in front of ya." Bobby answered.

Billy stood and walked up the stairs. He found the bathroom and quickly used it. When he exited the bathroom he heard a faint snore and followed the sound to door that was cracked open. He quietly looked in and faintly smiled when he saw none other than his youngest brother sleeping.

_He's all grown up now._ Billy thought to himself. _I missed out on so much with him. But I'll set things right. Don't worry Jackie. We'll be together forever as brothers again. I promise._


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**By: MysticFantasy**

**.**

**.**

Bobby kept looking at the rear view to make sure that Billy was still following him.

As soon as the two Darley brother's arrived, Jack had been at their sides the entire time. He even demanded to ride with them in the mustang. Bobby didn't mind but his older brother protectiveness kept telling him to keep checking incase Billy and Joe decided to take off with Jack.

He relaxed a bit when they finally pulled up along the side of the corner store where the scene of the crime happened. They climbed out of the cars and gathered around Bobby's car.

"This is where it happened?" Joe asked.

"Yeah." Angel answered as Jerry pulled up behind Billy's car.

They remained silent as Jerry walked over to them.

"What?" he asked after noticing how quiet they were.

"Last night we found out it wasn't random. Witness was paid and the whole gang story was just some bulls**t." Angel explained.

"Are you serious man?" Jerry asked in shock.

"Yeah." Angel answered as Jack and Bobby spotted someone heading for the door to the store.

The six men made their way over just as the man put in the key to the door and he noticed them.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" he asked.

"Yeah. If we could just have a moment of your time sir. Evelyn Mercer was our mother." Jack said.

The man suddenly looked sad.

"She was a good lady." he spoke. "I liked her very much. Let's come inside."

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Billy noticed Jack's painfully sad expression and placed an arm around his younger brother's shoulders. He felt Jack lean more into his embrace the more the survellance video played.

The oldest Darley himself felt sorrow as he watched the video of Jack's adoptive mother getting cornered by two masked men.

He felt Jack tense more when the screen showed one of the men raise a gun to Evelyn and then fire.

Billy hugged Jack closely when Jack weakly sobbed.

"Supposedly there was a witness to the shooting. You know anything about that?" Bobby asked.

"You ok Jackie?" Billy whispered as Jack pulled back.

The younger brother nodded as he wiped away his tears and turned back to the conversation that was taking place.

"Is he on the courts a lot?" Bobby asked.

"On the courts or at the gym." The man answered.

"Thank you sir." Angel said as they started to make their way back outside.

"That wasn't no robbery." Billy declared.

"You're d**n right that wasn't a robbery." Bobby agreed. "It was an execusion. They set mom up. They set her up!"

The six men walked across the street toward the high school building where the front sign announced that a basketball game was taking place. They walked inside and into the gym where they were amongst a packed crowd of everyone cheering on the game.

"You guys ready?" Bobby asked.

"What's the plan, Bobby?" Jerry asked.

"We're winging it, Jerry!"

"We always wing it!" Jerry exclaimed.

"We're gonna get killed." Jack said shaking his head.

"What you mean 'we', white boy?" Angel asked, turning to him and noticed Billy and Joe looking at him with questioning looks. "No offence guys. We joke like that."

"Let's get this going already." Bobby stated walking onto the court with Billy following close behind.

"Joe, come with me." Angel said heading back out into the hallway.

"Here we go." Jack said as he and Jerry stayed on the sidelines.

The buzzer rang and the players and referees circled Bobby and Billy at center of the court.

"I don't know what the hell you think you're doing, but you better get the hell out of here." one of the refs said.

"I'd love to friend." Bobby replied taking the basketball ball out of the ref's hands. "But I can't. Yeah! I got the rock now! I got this mother f***er now!"

One of the players stepped up to Bobby.

"Yo what you doing b***h?"

Bobby shoved the basketball in his face then threw the player roughly to the ground.

Jerry quickly stepped out on the court to back Bobby and Billy up, leaving Jack to keep watch.

"Whoa, back up!" Billy said, whipping out his gun and pointed it at the players as they all stepped back. "No need to grab us! This will only take a second. So shut up and listen to the man."

"My name is Bobby Mercer. And some of you probably knew my mother. And some of you probably know she was shot about a week ago across the street. Sixty-two years old, murdered in cold blood! I'm looking for the witness!"

"Think about it, Bobby, think. Think!" Jerry pleaded standing next to his older brother.

"I got this." Bobby said quietly and calmly then turned back to the crowd. "Ballplayer. Big guy. Supposedly never wears a coat. Dog lover. Ring any bells? You tell me where I can find the guy and you can finish your game. All we wanna do is talk to the guy."

Just then a teenager wearing a blue and red jacket and cap stood up in the bleachers and walked out of the gym.

This didn't slip Jack's eye and he quickly followed the teen out into the hallway.

"Hey! Hey kid!" Jack shouted and started running after the teen once he started running away. "No running in the halls!"

The teen tried to rush through the doors but bounced off of something that was blocking the doors and was caught by Jack.

"Get off me man!"

"Why you running?"

"Get off me! Man I don't know nothing."

"Why don't you shut up?" Jack ordered.

From the other side of the door, Angel and Joe appeared and walked over to where Jack held the teen.

"You got something to tell me youngster?" Angel questioned. "Jack, go get the others. We'll watch him."

Jack nodded and Joe took hold of the teen.

The youngest of the brother's hurried back into the gym and waved his older brothers down.

"Cracker Jack." Jerry pointed to where the youngest was.

Bobby grinned.

"I appreciate your help very much. You've all been upstanding citizens. Enjoy the rest of your game." he said throwing the basketball over his shoulder and walking off the court with Jerry and Billy.

"You got something Jackie?" Billy asked.

"Think so." Jack answered leading the way into the hall where they spotted Joe and Angel standing next to their captive who was leaning against the wall.

"What do we got here?" Bobby asked as they neared them.

"Bobby, meet Keenon." Angel said. "Something tells me he was on his way to deliver a warning."

"What's his name, Keenon?" Bobby asked.

"Damian. He's my brother." Keenon answered.

"He's your brother? No s**t. These are my brothers."

"No, dog. He's my real brother."

"Yeah, these are my real brothers." Bobby said with a laugh. "This is Angel, I'm Bobby. This is Jack and Jeremiah. They're Billy and Joe. So, what about you and Damian? You guys still close? Does he live at home with you?"

"Yeah. But I ain't telling you s**t else." Keenon answered.

"I wouldn't sell out my brothers either." Angel said as Bobby slipped Keenon's backpack off his shoulder and handed it to Billy.

"Just calm down, okay? Look, we just wanna talk to him. We wanna ask him a few questions. Is he gonna cooperate?" Bobby asked.

"We got something." Jerry said taking a paper from Billy.

"Address?" Bobby asked.

"He lives in The Gardens. Right over there." Jerry explained.

"Enjoy the rest of the game, okay? Don't worry about it." Bobby said giving the backpack back before walking off.

Joe grabbed the paper out of Jerry's hand and looked at it. "These are nice grades. Better stay in school kid."

Billy walked past Keenon and picked his necklace up.

"What is that? Aluminum?" he asked.

Jack took it out of Billy's hand and looked at it.

"S**t doesn't even spin." he said.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

"I just don't get it. Why would somebody hire a killer to shoot mom?" Jerry asked as they all sat slightly crammed in Billy's mustang.

"Here's an idea" Bobby said from the front between Billy and Angel. "We'll wait for the s**thead to get back and we'll ask him."

"Well, y'all do what y'all gotta do. I got gymnastics. Come on, let me out" Jerry said before everyone started laughing.

"You got your leotard on, Jerry?" Bobby asked.

"Go to hell. Y'all know what I'm talking about. I got a schedule to keep. Girls got gymnastics, I gotta take them. Come on, let me out, man." he explained.

Billy chuckled as he opened the driver side door and moved his seat up enough for Jerry to climb out.

"You wanna take Cracker Jack with you? He's very flexible." Bobby said making everyone laugh more.

"Bobby, you're the one who took ballet." Jack said under his breath.

"See you later Jer." Bobby yelled as Jerry got out and Billy fixed his seat.

"Alright, man." Jerry replied as he took off running back to his car.

Joe scooted over in the backseat and glanced at Jack while he drew with his finger on the frost that had built up on the window.

_"I don't mind if it rains or freezes. Long as I got my plastic Jesus. Riding on the dashboard." _he sang quietly.

"So Angel, how'd you deal with the Marines?" Billy asked. "Gotta be hard to be on a ship with no babes around. Hate to think what you do when you're lonely."

"It wasn't a ship and the Marines went coed. They got girls now." Angel answered.

"Yeah, I bet you them girls look like dudes too, though." Bobby said.

"Not after six months they don't." Angel replied as they all chuckled at the comment.

"_Comes in colors. Pink and pleasant. Glows in the dark..._" Jack trailed off from his singing when he noticed something of importance. "Hey, that's him. It's him!"

Everyone rushed out of the car and toward the building where a door was just closing.

"Joey, stay guard here." Billy ordered as they came to the front door and into the building.

Bobby noticed a tall man wearing brown sweats standing at the elevators just as the doors opened.

"Damian!" Bobby yelled and pulled out his gun. "You Damian?"

Instead of answering, the man ducked into the elevator.

"Why you pulling out guns and s**t dog?" Angel demanded as they ran after their suspect.

"Yo!" Bobby yelled and kicked the door as they just closed then noticed the floor lights lighting up. "Jack, stay here. Tell me where it stops." he ordered as he, Angel and Billy rushed to the stairs.

"Let's get this f***er." Billy exclaimed as they rushed up the stairs.

_"Four..."_

"We got this clown!" Bobby declared. "Hurry up Angel!"

_"Five..."_

"D**n stairs." Angel panted.

"_Six_...Six. It stopped!" Jack hurried over to the stairway and burst through the door.

"Six!" he shouted. "He stopped at six!"

Bobby and Billy pressed on and came to the sixth floor. They burst through the door and Bobby spotted their target ducking into a room.

"Yo! Yo Damian, I just wanna ask you a few quetions!"

"I got something for your a**es!" Damien replied and brought out a large black dog that made Bobby's and Billy's eyes widen.

"Oh s**t." Bobby exclaimed and Billy suddenly fired his gun.

"Yo, don't shoot my dogs man!" Damien yelled.

"Run!" Bobby shouted only to trip over his feet and fall, leaving the dogs to start biting at his legs.

"Get off him!" Billy shouted and fired his gun but missed, leaving the second dog to bite him in the leg.

"S**t! Angel!" Bobby started to yell. "Get this f***ing dog off my leg!"

"Get the f**k off my arm." Billy shouted trying to push the dog off.

Angel finally showed up on the floor and turned towards the scene.

"There's a dog trying to eat us, man! Help us, man!" Bobby yelled.

"Hold on!" Angel said, disappearing around the corner.

"It's biting my legs off!" Bobby yelled in pain.

Suddenly Angel showed up with a fire extinguisher and sprayed the dogs at close range.

"Get up off of them! Get up off my brother, little boy! What you doing?"

Bobby and Billy stood up and they rushed into Damien's apartment while Angel locked the dogs outside in the hallway.

"Where you at, playboy?" Angel shouted looking around the apartment.

"My eyes." Billy groaned.

"Give us something for ours eyes Angel!" Bobby begged.

"We just wanna talk!" Angel yelled then handed us a bottle of water. "Put that in your eyes."

Bobby and Billy quickly cleansed their eyes of the extinguisher spray and then turned their attention to finding Damien.

"The window! The window!" Angel yelled noticing the window was open.

They ran over to the window and looked outside to see Damien repelling down the side of the building with a rope.

Damien looked up to see them looking down at him and shot up at them; "Y'all didn't know who you was messing with!" he yelled.

"Give me my gun! Give me my gun! I ain't playing with this dude!" Bobby yelled getting angry as he took the gun from Angel. "I just wanted to talk!"

Billy looked around and spotted a large buthcer knife in the kitchen.

"Bobby! Here!" he said grabbing the knife

"You're going down now!" Bobby said and cut the rope Damien was on. They heard him scream until they heard the impact.

"Think he dead?" Angel asked looking out the window.

"No, he ain't dead. He's just f***ed up." Bobby said looking out the window.

"Let's go talk to him now." Billy said as they went back down the stairs where they ran into Jack.

"What happened?" the youngest asked.

"Dog bites but we're alright." Billy answered. "Damien's outside waiting for us so we can talk."

"Outside?" Jack questioned as they walked down the rest of the stairs.

They hurried outside and around the building where they spotted Joe standing over someone who was pleading for help.

"Man, you must be freezing!" Jack yelled as they walked over to where Joe and Damien were.

Angel picked up Damien's gun from the snow.

"You won't be needing this no more, playboy." he said placing it in his coat pocket.

"You know why we're here, Damian?" Bobby asked standing over him.

"Come on, man, call me an ambulance." Damian begged as he shivered from the cold and pain.

"An ambulance? What, for our dog bites? We'll be alright." Billy said.

"You give me a name, I'll call 911. I wanna know who shot up that liquor store now." Bobby demanded.

"Man, l didn't shoot no one." Damien declared.

"Say what? Speak up." Angel said. "Can't hear you, playboy. It's hard to hear you out here with all this wind. If we leave, ain't nobody else gonna hear you out here either."

"They say it's gonna be a cold night." Jack said.

"You ain't gonna make it far with that leg." Joe added.

"Look, man, these two fools said they'd pay me a few dubs if I said I saw some gangsters shoot up the place, alright? But I didn't hurt no one!"

"Alright, well turn into a f***ing fudgesicle" Angel said before they all started to leave.

"Hey, come on, man! I can't say nothing!" Damien exclaimed.

"Fair enough. You're gonna die right here." Bobby said and they started to walked away. Jack hesitated for a minute but soon ran to catch up to his brothers.

"Yo, man, come on!" Damien pleaded.

"I'm calling his bluff." Bobby said.

"Hey, come on! Call me an ambulance! Come on!" Damien continued to yell.

"Think he gonna break?" Angel asked Bobby.

"You see that chinese sparerib hanging out of his leg? It's just a matter of time." Billy said.

"You sure?" Joe asked.

"You wanna put money on it?" Bobby asked with a grin as they stopped.

"Are you sure?" Angel asked with a laugh and noticed Jack looking back at Damien. "Turn around, d**k lips!"

"What the f**k you looking at?" Bobby asked Jack.

"I'll tell you where you can find him!" Damien finally yelled.

"Told ya." Billy said smiling at Angel and Joe.

"Come on!" Bobby said and ran back over to Damien.

"Just call me an ambulance." Damien pleaded.

"Give me a name." Bobby demanded.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Billy followed the melody of a guitar as he lowered his sleeve over the bandages on his arm and found himself at Jack's room where he spotted his youngest brother sitting on the edge of his bed as he strummed a few chords.

"Hey Jackie." Billy greeted. "Great tunes. Glad to know there's someone in this family who has talent."

"Hey Billy." Jack said as he placed his guitar to the side. "What's up?"

"Well, I thought I'd come and see how you were handling what happened tonight." Billy answered as he sat next to Jack.

"I think I'm alright. A little freaked out but I'm alright."

"You sure?" Billy asked. "I saw how scared you looked after me and Bobby took care of the shooters."

"Yeah, naturally I would be. Seeing my big brother's take out guys like that...I _am_ freaking out Billy!"

"Hey, it's ok." Billy said embracing Jack and holding him close. Jack in return clung to Billy tightly. "I'm sorry you had to see us do that. I know you already know I'm a crook but I didn't want you to see me like that."

"You were the one who killed dad. Weren't you?" Jack asked softly.

Billy sighed heavily.

"Yeah." he answered. "I didn't do it for no reason though Jackie. He was going to kill Joe. He had a gun pointed at him and that's when I stepped in. I wasn't about to let him kill our brother. He was just lucky that I didn't do it sooner. Especially after what he did to all of us when we were younger. I wanted to tell you during a better situation. I'm sorry you had to be part of all this kid."

"I'm not mad or upset." Jack said. "I've seen Bobby do a lot of stuff that I should be use to seeing. Tonight...I just haven't seen anything like that in a while. As far as dad...I kind of suspected it was you from the start. After everything he did to us...I was glad when you said someone took him out. Guess I was just in a little denial to believe that it might have been you."

"So you're not upset with me about anything?" Billy asked.

"Just that you couldn't have found me sooner." Jack said with a weak grin.

Billy lightly chuckled.

"Believe me Jackie, if it had been possible I would have put a tracking chip on you somehow."

Jack smiled.

"You found me anyway and I'm really glad that you did. I don't want us to ever be separated again. I hated thinking that I wouldn't ever see you and Joe for the rest of my life."

"We felt the same Jack." Billy said. "There wasn't a day that went by that me and Joey didn't think or talk about you. We both promised that, even if it took the rest of our lives, we would find you. And we did. Sorry that it took so long though. I had a feeling that you might have thought we were long gone but there was a part of me that still hoped that you knew we were coming for you."

"I did." Jack said holding onto Billy a bit more. "I always believed that you and Joe were still out there and I'd see you again one day. I mean, as the years went by I did lose a little hope but I always held onto whatever I had left. I held onto it every time I looked at our picture."

Billy smiled.

"I'm glad you were able to hang onto it all these years. Have something to remember us by. We should get a new one taken."

Jack smiled with a small nod.

"So you're really alright?" Billy asked. "We can talk more if you want."

"I'm ok now Billy. I feel a lot better." Jack answered.

"You're a tough kid Jackie." Billy mused. "I'm glad you're so strong. What do you say tomorrow you, me and Joe spend the whole day together? Bobby didn't say we needed to do anything tomorrow."

Jack smiled.

"I would really like that." he said.

"Great. We'll get up early and you can show us the best places to hang out at. Alright?"

Jack nodded his head.

"Great. Let's get some sleep now. Tomorrow it'll just be us three Darley boys." Billy said.

"Ok." Jack replied.

"Ok. Night Jackie."

"Night Billy."


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**By: MysticFantasy**

**.**

**.**

Bobby walked into the kitchen to once more find that Jack wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Where'd that little fairy get to?" he asked himself before turning to the fridge where he spotted a sticky note. He grabbed the note and read what it said.

"Dear Bobby, spending the day with Billy and Joe. I have my phone if you need to call. I'll be back before dark or a little sooner. Jack."

Bobby sighed and looked at the note again.

"Little fairy knows how to press my buttons." he muttered before Angel showed up.

"Hey, where's Jack?" he asked.

"Spendin' time with Billy and Joe." Bobby answered tossing the note into the trash can.

"Did he leave any breakfast?" Angel asked.

"Nope." Bobby answered. "Gotta make our own today little sister."

"Man, I'm gonna kill Jack when he gets home. My cooking makes me sick."

"You're not the only one it makes sick." Bobby declared.

"Man, shut up." Angel muttered. "When'd Jackie-poo say he'd be back?"

"Somewhere in the evening." Bobby answered. "So be ready incase we don't have any lunch or dinner."

"D**n it!"

.

l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l

l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l

.

"This mall is a lot nicer than the one in Boston." Joe exclaimed as he walked next to his brothers.

"Really? This place is boring compared to the ones in New York." Jack said.

"Maybe but I bet the ones in New York have a lot more break in's." Billy suggested.

"Alright. I'll give you that one." Jack replied with a grin.

"So who do you normally come with here Jack?" Joe asked. "Friends? Girlfriend?"

"Not seeing anyone right now and it's not helping with Bobby." Jack answered. "Most of the time that I do come I'm with my bandmates."

"No girl?" Billy asked. "S**t, how are you related to Joey?"

"You got girls Joe?" Jack asked.

"Literally, almost a different girl almost every night Jackie." Billy answered.

"F***ing liar." Joe chuckled.

"No I'm not."

"Yea you are."

Jack laughed at his brothers before they made their way into a music store.

"So what kind of rock do you like Jackie?" Billy asked as he looked through a few cd's.

"Almost all rock." Jack answered wandering over to a wall that held guitars on it. He smiled when he saw a beautiful black and dark blue electric guitar.

Billy noticed Jack's smile at the instrument and smiled to himself.

"Dude, I think there's a he/she staring at me." Joe muttered making Jack and Billy laugh. "Shut up!"

"Let's get outta here." Billy said with Jack still laughing.

They left the music store and went into a sports store.

"Play any sports?" Jack asked looking at a hockey stick.

"Basketball every now and then but not very often." Joe answered. "You?"

"Hockey but only when Bobby starts crying for a game." Jack answered.

"You put a lot of guys in the hospital?" Billy asked with a grin.

"Once but only because I tripped over a guy and my skate cut the back of his ankle."

Joe shuddered at the thought of having that kind of injury.

"Wuss." Billy said lightly smacking Joe upside the head.

"You guys know how to skate?" Jack asked making his way over to the skating equipment.

.

l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l

l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l

.

Jack whirled around and stopped to see how his two older brothers were fairing. He laughed when he saw Joe fall flat on his butt and Billy still struggling to keep his balance.

"Glad to know we amuse you Jackie." Joe said getting on all fours.

"Sorry but you remind me of myself when I was learning how to skate." Jack said offering a hand to Joe and helping him stand.

"You were probably younger than us at the time." Billy said managing to grab onto the wall as Jack helped Joe glide over.

"True." Jack agreed. "I was about ten when I started skating for the first time. But I was a lot worse than you guys. I couldn't get any balance to save my life."

"Bobby showed you how to do this?" Billy asked as they got off the ice.

"Yeah," Jack answered as they walked over to the bench with their shoes. "He showed me how to skate and then showed me how to play hockey. But he didn't let me play in actual games for nearly a year. Said that it would be too tough for me and I was still too small."

"Maybe he was just really protective of you." Joe suggested removing the skates from his feet.

"Oh I know he was. He still is. I know that he didn't want me going along for that stuff that happened last night." Jack replied.

"Can't blame him Jack. I'm surprised Billy let _me_ go along." Joe said and got a playful cuff to the head from their older brother.

"I'm keeping a closer eye on the both of you now." Billy stated making the two laugh. "You two getting hungry?"

"I am." Joe answered slipping his shoes on.

"You're always hungry Joe." Billy said tying his laces. "What about you Jackie? Hungry?"

"I'm getting there." Jack answered tying his boots. "Let's go back to my place and I'll make something. I'm sure that Bobby and Angel are starving too."

"They can't cook?" Billy asked grabbing the bag of gear.

"Nope."

"Just like us." Joe said as Billy popped the trunk of his car.

"Seriously?" Jack asked with a grin.

"Yep. With us Jackie it's always take-out." Billy said placing the duffle bag in the trunk and shutting it.

"Yeah, I think we should go back to my place and I'll fix something up." Jack said.

"Sounds good. That stuff you made when we first got here...Wow. Some awesome stuff Jackie." Joe said.

"Had to learn at a young age." Jack said as he climbed into the backseat. "Mom taught me everything I know. I was making whole meals by the time I was twelve."

"One more skill than us." Billy said with a grin as he started the car. "Me and Joe are lucky enough to make noodles without forgetting them."

Jack chuckled as the car left the ice rink.

"So how'd you like ice skating?" he asked.

"Interesting. To say the least. Something I could get into with time." Billy answered turning around a corner.

"Say that in front of Bobby and he'll have you back out here in an hour learning to play hockey." Jack declared. "He's always showing up things that he learned in the league."

"He was in the hockey league?" Joe asked a bit surprised.

"Sure was." Jack answered. "He was the Michigan Mauler. If only he could have controlled his temper. He may still be there."

"Too many fights?" Billy asked.

"Yep. Something Bobby is really known around Detroit for. He's got a bit of a criminal history too." Jack said with a smirk.

"Like me." Billy said with a grin. "He ever been in prison?"

"Jail but the most has been for like two weeks that I can remember." Jack answered.

"You and him seem to be the closest. He must be around a lot." Billy said bringing the car to a stop at a red light.

"Not really." Jack answered with a bit of a sad tone. "Bobby has another little habit of taking off whenever he pleases. Sometimes he stays away for a long time. Longest he's been away is five years."

"Was that recent?" Billy asked.

"Yeah." Jack answered through a sigh. "What happened to our mom is the reason he's back. But he did call almost every day and we talked all the time."

"Was he here when you graduated from high school?" Joe asked.

"Yeah. He made it right on time to see me walk in and threw me a party afterwards." Jack answered with a slight grin. "He takes off a lot but he does know when to be here when he's needed most."

"That's good. How was he to you when you were little?" Billy asked changing lanes to get onto the highway.

"They've all been great to me but Bobby was the one to make sure that no one messed with me and he was always trying to make a man outta me. He'd always beat the s**t out of anyone who did mess with me. Put a few guys in the hospital a couple of times."

"Billy did that for me once." Joe mused.

"I didn't beat him though." Billy stated. "Shot him. He never laid a finger on you again."

"Because you blew his fingers off." Joe chuckled.

Jack laughed as well and watched the scenery outside the window go by. He'd seen this scene hundreds of times before but now that he was with Billy and Joe it seemed different somehow. A whole new atmosphere.

He loves the way it feels.

.

l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l

l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l

.

Bobby looked up from the hockey game when he heard the front door open. He quickly realized who it was when he heard Jack laughing.

"He really did that?" Jack exclaimed appearing in view as he removed his jacket.

"He did." Billy answered through laughter. "I still don't let Joe live it down."

"No s**t." Joe said. "Get over it man! It was two years ago and I was drunk!"

"Hammered is more like it Joey." Billy said. "You can't do that kinda damage to someones living room unless you're seriously hammered."

"Hey guys." Bobby greeted standing. "Where you been?"

"Hanging out." Jack answered.

"He showed us the ice rink where you taught him to skate." Billy said.

"The fairy show you any of his figure skating moves?" Bobby asked.

"A**hole." Jack said through a half-hearted smirk. "I'll get started on lunch."

"Good. You owe me one Cracker Jack. Taking off without a word. Angel tried to cook and ended up burning the food." Bobby exclaimed.

"No wonder it smells bad in here." Jack said walking into the kitchen.

"We can't cook either. Just to let you know." Billy said as he and Joe followed Bobby into the living room.

"Me either." Bobby replied sitting down. "The fairy is the only one who can and we depend on him a lot."

"No s**t!" Jack exclaimed from the kitchen.

Billy and Joe laughed and turned their attention to the tv. A hockey game was playing.

"Jackie told us that you use to be in the league." Billy said.

"Sure was." Bobby replied with a bit of a satisfied smirk on his face.

"What happened?" Joe asked even though they already knew.

"Bunch of sissies is what." Bobby answered. "Hockey is suppose to be violent but no one could take a punch. Management was saying that the fan were nuts about the way I played but the other players didn't like getting black eyes and broken noses."

"Man, they should expect that when you play hockey." Billy stated.

"That's exactly what I told them." Bobby said. "Even after they got rid of me, I still hold the record for being the toughest hockey player."

"That's your ego talking." Jack declared.

"Shut it fairy."

Billy laughed and looked out of the corner of his eye to see Jack in the kitchen putting something in the oven.

"So where's Angel and Jerry?" Joe asked.

"Angel's probably at his crazy girlfriends house and Jerry's hardly around because of his luxury condo business that's under construction right now. He's here maybe once or twice a week." Bobby answered.

"So most of the time it's just you and Jackie huh?" Billy asked.

"Yeah and Jackie just loves having me around." Bobby answered with a smirk.

"As if." Jack said bringing his brothers bottles of beer.

"Thanks Jackie." Billy said taking one, opening it and taking a drink.

"So how'd you guys enjoy skating?" Bobby asked opening his beer as Jack went back to the kitchen.

"Wasn't too bad." Joe answered. "When I wasn't falling on my a**."

Bobby laughed.

"It gets easier." he said. "Maybe I can help you guys out after everything settles down."

"Find out anything else?" Billy asked.

"Not much. Angel and I are gonna check out the shooters place tonight and see if we can find out anything." Bobby answered before Jack suddenly appeared.

"Cops outside. Green and Fowler." he said.

"S**t." Joe muttered.

"It's alright. Just act cool. I know one of them. He's gonna try to trick us into a confession. Just say that we were here the past two days so you guys could catch up with Jack and you got here the day before but it took a while to find him. Go with how we met if they ask." Bobby answered. "Pretend that we're really into the game. Jack, act natural."

The three nodded. Jack went back into the kitchen and continued what he was doing while Billy and Joe copied Bobby's actions toward the hockey game.

"Hey there Jack. Mind if we come in?" Green asked as he and Fowler came in through the back door and into the kitchen.

"You're already in." Jack said as he continued cutting lettuce. "Ain't the cops ever heard of knocking? Can this be considered breaking and entering?"

Green chuckled before he and Fowler made their way into the living room. The older cop right away noticed Billy and Joe and saw the amazing resemblance they held to Jack.

"Hey there Bobby." Green greeted.

"Green." Bobby greeted back standing and shaking hands with the officer. "Nice of you to drop in."

"I bet." Green replied. "Who are your new friends?"

"We're Jack's biological brothers." Billy answered standing.

"You wouldn't be Billy Darley by any chance would you?" Green asked.

"That's me and that's Joe Darley." Billy answered. "How'd you know about us?"

"I've been to Boston a few times." Green answered. "Everyone's heard about you but I didn't know you and Jack were brothers. Everyone thought that Jack was an only child."

"Complicated story." Billy said. "We were seperated when he was still a kid and we found him not too long ago. We're here visiting for a while."

"That so?" Fowler asked suspiciously.

"Yeah. You got a problem with it?" Billy asked.

"No, he doesn't." Green answered before turning to Bobby. "Bobby, did you happen to forget our little conversation we had at your brother's house about not interfering with our investigation?"

"No, I didn't. You know I've been trying to keep straight Green." Bobby answered.

"Where's you car, Bobby? It's not outside." Green asked.

"Left it at Jerry's." Joe answered as he stood. "We came home in our car. The mustang."

"Yeah. Billy's a great driver with this kind of weather and his car did better with the streets the way they are." Bobby said.

"Fascinating. Hey, Gretzky, you know what this is?" Fowler asked turning to Bobby and holding up a little baggy with a hair in it.

"A hair from your wife's tit?"

"Try from your thick skull. Forensics took it off a pair of contract killers we found dead this morning." Fowler said.

"Fishing for a confession with a phony hair, huh? That's an old one, boys." Bobby said laughing. Billy and Joe were a little surprised when Green laughed as well and patted his partner on the back.

"Come on, Green" Bobby said as he sat back down on the couch. "You know when I'll know you got my hair off a dead body, right? When I hear the jailhouse doors close behind me."

"Okay, then you tell me what they told you. You think that these thugs were hired to kill Evelyn, is that it?"

"Wait, how do you go from petty thug to contract killer?" Bobby asked. "And if they were professional shooters, like you say, they'd have never told us who they was working with anyway. Even if they got one hell of an a**-whupping."

"You think you're pretty cute, don't you?" Fowler asked. "Everybody's a smart guy until I bust them in the mouth."

"Hey! hey! Wait!" Green said, trying to control his partner while Billy and Joe took a step forward to defend Bobby.

"This ain't what I'm here for!" Green said. "Look, Bobby, if you got something, you give it to me and if it's something vital, we will run with this. But don't try and take on Detroit by yourself. You keep knocking on the devil's door long enough and sooner or later somebody's gonna answer you."

Bobby simply nodded.

Green then turned to Billy.

"So how long have you been here with Jack?" he asked.

"Only a few days." Billy answered. "Takes a while to find your kid brother after he was forcefully taken away by cops and placed in foster care."

"Since you're here, I'm assuming you know what happened to Ms. Evelyn then."

"Yeah, Jackie told us what happened." Billy answered and noticed Green seemed to study him.

"Well it was nice meeting you Billy, Joe. Bobby, you remember what I told you. Alright?"

"Sure thing Green." Bobby answered.

"Alright then." Green said as he and Fowler walked back toward the kitchen.

"Jack, watch yourself alright? Don't take after your big brothers." Green said.

"Green, I'm a blood Darley who was raised Mercer. How long do you think someone like me can stay in check with those two here?" Jack replied.

Green laughed.

"Well, you're the rational one. Hope you keep that in mind Jack. I'd hate to have to put you in cuffs for anything." he said before he left with Fowler right behind him.

"Nice guys." Joe muttered sarcastically.

"Green seems to know what's going on." Billy said.

"He does." Bobby answered. "He's known me since we were kids. But he can't do anything unless he has solid proof. He's one of those straight by-the-book cops. Can't stand conspiracy and stuff like that. But he has been on our side more than a few times."

"Guess it's good to kinda have a cop on your side without him being bribed." Joe said.

"You guys got twisted cops in Boston?" Bobby asked.

"Yep. If we want them to look the other way we gotta pay them no less than a thousand." Billy answered.

"But we're hardly ever caught when we do something." Joe added.

"I've gotten away with a few things." Bobby said with a nod and saw Jack start to place small dishes on the table. "Lunch almost ready sweetheart?"

Jack gave Bobby the finger before returning to the kitchen.

The three older men laughed.

"I love showing him how much I care." Bobby chuckled.

"You smother me." Jack said sarcastically.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

**By: MysticFantasy**

**.**

**.**

"It's ready." Jack announced from the dinning room as he removed oven mitts from his hands.

"Finally. I'm starved." Bobby said leading the way into the dinning room and taking a seat on the chair that use to be Evelyn's. He sighed a little but quickly masked his emotions flawlessly as Jack took his usual seat that was next to where he was sitting with Billy next to him and Joe sitting to Bobby's right.

"Dang. This looks good Jackie." Joe said placing a spoonful of rice onto his plate.

"Thanks."

"Good thing you learned Jackie." Billy said. "You won't starve like the rest of us."

"Funny thing is, despite he knows how to cook good stuff like this, look how scrawny he is." Bobby said with a smirk as he placed a few slices of chicken on his already loaded plate.

"Comes with the height." Joe said with laughter.

"True. All three of you look like you should stay the night at an all you can eat buffet." Bobby joked.

"And you could stay at a gym for that time." Jack joked back making Billy and Joe laugh.

"Traitors." Bobby smirked. "And we were getting along so well too."

Jack laughed at his brothers and they continued to eat. A few minutes went by and most of the food was already gone when Angel suddenly appeared with a young latin woman.

"Ya'll didn't wait for me?" Angel exclaimed.

"If you and Loco Ono weren't always at each other you would know that dinner time started almost twenty minutes ago." Bobby commented.

"Don't start with that man." Angel pleaded before turning to his girlfriend. "Sofi, these two are Jackie's brothers. That's Billy and that's Joe. Guys this is my girl, Sofi."

"Nice to meet you." Billy greeted while Joe simply waved.

"Nice to meet you both." Sofi said with an accented voice. "Angel told me about the two you. I hope that's alright."

"Sure." Joe said swallowing the food in his mouth.

"Good. I don't want to feel like I'm barging in."

"Why don't you feel like that with me?" Bobby declared.

"Bobby. Don't start." Angel pleaded.

Jack chuckled as the familiar argument started up once more between Bobby and Sofi with Angel trying to break them up.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Billy finished off his beer and tossed it in the trash can before making his way to the living room where he spotted Angel and Bobby sitting on the couch going through a wallet they grabbed off one of the shooters from the other night.

"Who hired these guys?" Bobby asked looking at an I.D. "West Marine's? By the river right?"

"Yeah." Angel answered looking over Bobby's shoulder to look at the I.D.

"Alright. Let's go check it out." Bobby said getting up.

As they started to walk out of the living room Sofi appeared and stood in the doorway, blocking the men from leaving.

"Baby." Angel sighed.

"Now, sweetie, wasn't there a discussion about a dinner together? You missed eating with them and said that we could have dinner together." Sofi said.

"We got some important s**t to deal with, baby." Angel said.

"She's so la vida loca" Bobby mocked causing Joe to nearly snort out a laugh.

"Man, don't do that right now." Angel pleaded turning to Bobby.

"Shut up, Bobby. Don't start with that crap!" Sofi declared pointing at the oldest Mercer brother.

"Can y'all not go there?" Angel yelled.

"That's why you don't get a girlfriend."

"I don't need a different girlfriend every week."

"Please don't go there. Don't go there, please." Angel kept begging.

The entire scene was making it harder for Joe and Jack to hold back their laughter and Billy, under better control of himself, had an amused smirk on his face.

"You know what? I want a girlfriend like you." Bobby said as Sofi put her hands on Angel's shoulders and gave him 'the look'.

"Can we go?" Bobby asked looking at everyone.

"Angel. You said this time was gonna be different." Sofi said sadly as a small chuckle escaped Jack.

"Ay mami. You're breaking mi corazón. Chica." Bobby teased Sofi as she walked away then turned to Angel. "She's getting real comfortable here, huh? What are you doing? I thought you was a macho man. A tough guy."

Jack let out a small chuckle as Angel remained silent.

"You know, it's a real shame that these three are all I got for back-up. Billy, Joe, let's go. Say bye to your big sister Jackie. Let's go."

"You gonna leave me too?" Angel asked as they walked towards the door where Bobby just put on his jacket. "I just need fifteen minutes, guys."

Bobby, Billy and Joe went through the door while Jack turned around to face Angel.

"She's addicted to what Angel's dick did." he teased before shutting the door and causing his two blood brothers to break out into laughter.

"Told you it would get insane if Sofi showed up." Bobby said as Billy unlocked his car.

"No kidding. That was better than tv." Joe stated climbing into the backseat with Jack following him.

"Is it like that everytime she shows up?" Billy asked shutting his door and starting the engine.

"All the time." Bobby answered putting his seat belt on. "One piece of advise, don't stay the night. Disturbance of the peace."

Joe noticed Jack shiver in digust and got the idea. He cast his eyes out the window and watched the scenery go by as Bobby directed Billy which ways to go.

Detroit was different from Boston but Joe felt like he hadn't even left his hometown. There was something about being in Detroit that reminded him of Boston.

Maybe it was the way that almost everyone was currupt or the way that he was helping chase down another low life that did something to get on their hit list. The facts that he didn't know the area and that he was with his long lost baby brother and his new family were the reasons that Joe kept remembering he was in a different town.

"This is it." Bobby said as the car pulled up across the street from the house they were going to look through.

"You sure this is safe?" Joe asked as they all slipped black gloves on as they came to the door and Jack started to pick the lock.

"The guy is dead. I doubt he'll be coming back to check if he left the stove on." Bobby explained.

"Good point." Joe said as Jack opened the door.

"You're a little too good at that Jackie." Billy lightly joked as they walked inside.

"Check everything. There's gotta be some s**t around here that ties these guys to somebody else." Bobby said as he and Billy searched the bedroom, while Joe and Jack checked the living room.

"There's gotta be something around here." Billy said before he lifted up the mattress to reveal a variety of guns hidden underneath. "Bingo."

Bobby picked up a shotgun and cocked it to see if it was loaded.

"Here." Billy said picking up an empty duffle bag from the floor and handed it to Bobby who began to place the guns inside.

Billy walked out of the room and found Jack going through a pile of CD's and Joe looking under the couch.

"You find anything Jackie?" he asked.

"Camera." Jack answered with a small shrug holding up a small silver camera.

"Find anything else?" Bobby asked coming out of the room.

"Nothing." Joe answered getting up. "These guys were pro's alright."

"Let's get goin'." Bobby said. "We're just gonna have to go with what we can get from this s**t."

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

"SIG Sauer, forty-five auto. That'll blow your back out." Bobby said examining one of the many guns that was spread on the table.

Billy picked up a gun from the table and looked it over.

"Nine millimeter Beretta." He said then picked up a second gun with Joe writing down the brand on a piece of paper. "Look at this Beretta. It's triple-action. Three bullets at once."

"They say dead men tell no tales, but they sure leave important s**t lying around." Bobby said then quickly pointed one of guns at Jerry who just walked into the living room.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing now?" Jerry asked sounding surprised.

"Just getting a head start on next years taxes Jerry." Bobby answered turning back to the guns.

"Look how y'all doing mama's house." Jerry exclaimed looking around the living room. "Come on! Look at this table, man! Come on!"

"You know what? You're right." Bobby said then turned to Sofi who was in the kitchen."Hey, Sofi. Why don't you do me a favor and clean up some of this s**t? Make yourself useful."

Bobby ducked when Sofi threw an empty pizza box at him.

"You missed." he laughed.

"Hey Bobby." Jack said handing him the digital camera he held. On the screen there was a picture of Evelyn Mercer walking down a street.

"Where'd y'all get this?" Jerry asked looking at the weapons.

"Our friend Stanly, the shooter." Billy answered examining another gun as Bobby looked through the pictures.

"Look at this." Bobby said looking at the screen to noticed Evelyn with her lawyer in different locations.

"Let me see that." Jerry said taking the camera from Bobby.

"They had to have been tracking her." Joe said looking over Jerry's shoulder.

"That's that guy. That's that lawyer guy. That s**thead said, he said he only met her once, Bobby." Jack stated.

"Hey, where the hell you been? I've been trying to call you all day." Bobby declared at Angel as he walked into the dinning room.

"Following up new leads." Angel replied quickly glancing at Jerry with a bit of a glare.

"Let's go. Jerry, you coming with us? Don't you wanna find out who hired them?" Bobby asked grabbing his jacket.

"Yeah, don't you wanna find out who killed mom?" Angel asked coldly.

"Of course I do, man." Jerry answered.

"Let's go. Stop bullsh***ing. Come on." Bobby said walking out of the house through the back door with Jack right behind him.

"Alright. Somebody gotta look after y'all clowns." Jerry said before looking at Billy and Joe. "Aren't y'all comin'?"

"No. We're gonna go get ammo for this stuff then check on our boys." Billy answered putting his jacket on. "Look after Jack for us. Alright?"

"I will." Jerry promised.

Billy and Joe left the house through the front door and climbed into the mustang.

"What are you thinking bro?" Joe asked as they pulled away from the house and drove down the street.

"You see the way Angel looked at Jerry?" Billy replied. "Angel knows something and it looks like Jerry has something to do with it."

"What are we gonna do about it?" Joe asked.

"For now we play it cool and do what we have to to keep Jackie safe. If Jerry's behind what's going on then we gotta let Bobby and Angel handle it. We're just gonna be concerned about Jack most of the time. If Bobby needs us for anything we'll help but if he doesn't want us being part of it then we won't worry about it."

"Alright." Joe agreed with a single nod.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

The next morning Billy and Joe walked into the house with the key Jack had given them the day before. They walked in and right away heard voices upstairs.

"I know you need to stay your a** on that porcelain." Angel's voice declared. "This is gonna require a little finesse and given your prior reputation as a hothead you're gonna be the first to f**k up."

"I wrote the f***ing book on finesse!" Bobby's voice yelled. "Wait for me to wipe my a** Angel! I'm coming with you! Angel! Get me some fucking toilet paper, Jack. Angel!"

The said brother walked down the stairs dressed in warm clothes and spotted the two Darley brothers.

"You guys just heard how our mornings start." he said putting his jacket on.

"Sounds a lot more fun than ours." Billy commented. "Jack?"

"Just got out of the shower. Probably getting dressed." Angel answered. "I'll see you guys later. I got some stuff to take care of."

Billy watched Angel leave the house before he and Joe walked upstairs. They went to Jack's room where they spotted their youngest brother buttoning his jeans.

"Hey Jackie." Billy greeted.

"Hey guys." Jack greeted with a smile. "Ya'll missed out on some crazy stuff last night."

"Seems like it from what we just heard." Joe said sitting on the edge of his brothers bed as Jack continued to get dressed.

"It's like that every morning." Jack said pulling a shirt on. "Someone's always yelling at someone. Became a second wake up call."

The two brothers chuckled before Bobby appeared.

"Hey guys." he greeted.

"Hey Bobby." Billy greeted back. "Got the ammo we needed for those guns. Bag is in my car."

"Awesome." Bobby exclaimed.

"How'd it go over with that lawyer?" Billy asked.

"Not what we expected." Bobby answered. "Turns out that he was dating our mom but they kept it a secret because he didn't want to make her look bad. Luckily he didn't get mad that I broke a window and Jack hacked into his computer."

"Jackie, how much of breaking and entering to you know?" Joe joked.

"He's sneakier than you think." Bobby said with a smirk.

"Guess he gets it from both sides." Billy figured.

"I had to have gotten it from somewhere." Jack replied.

"Need us for anything today Bobby?" Joe asked.

"If you guys don't mind, there is something." Bobby answered. "Need a councilman questioned."

"Which one?" Billy asked.

"Name's Douglas." Bobby answered. "Apparantly he shut down Jerry's warehouse project for some reason. We need to know why and who ordered it. Jackie and I were gonna do it but with Green on us already it's getting a little risky and I don't want anything happening to the fairy."

Bobby chuckled as a pair of rolled up socks hit him with Jack giving him an annoyed look.

Billy smirked at his youngest brother before turning back to Bobby.

"We'll check it out for ya." he said. "Want us to come back here or should we meet somewhere?"

"Gotta wait for Angel to tell us what he's looking into. Probably gonna meet somewhere. I'll let you know." Bobby answered.

"Alright then. We'll go ahead and check it out." Billy said.

"Be careful guys." Jack said and was pulled into a one arm hug from his older brother.

"Don't worry Jackie. We will be." Billy assured. "Come on Joey."

Jack watched his brothers leave with their voices saying something about taking two other members of the gang with them.

"They'll be alright Jack." Bobby said. "If Billy alone is anything like me, they'll be ok."

Jack weakly smirked.

"You have no idea how alike you and Billy are." he said softly.

Bobby smiled as he ruffled Jack's still damp hair before they went downstairs to wait for the news of what was going on.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

"What do you think he found?" Jack asked as they walked toward a bowling ally in the middle of the afternoon after Billy and Joe had informed them of their 'talk' with Douglas.

"I don't know, but it's something big." Bobby replied.

"How can you tell?" Joe asked holding the door open.

"By the sound of his voice. I know my brother." Bobby answered as they walked inside where they quickly spotted Angel sitting at the concession stand. They made their way over to him and ordered a few beers.

"What's going on Angel?" Bobby asked looking around as the cashier handed them their drinks.

"Was that councilman helpful?" Angel asked.

"Oh, yeah. A real upstanding citizen." Joe answered a bit sarcastically before taking a drink of his beer.

"You remember a punk named Victor Sweet?" Bobby asked Angel.

"I remember a Malcolm Sweet." Angel answered.

"Victor was his nephew. Used to deliver things for his uncle. Firebombs and beatings. You remember. Malcolm used to love to humiliate him all the time." Bobby explained.

"Yeah, I remember that dude." Angel said with a weak chuckle.

"Apparently, Victor got sick of the a**-whuppings and sunk his uncle into the river. He owns the whole neighborhood now." Bobby continued.

"Hey, Bobby um…word around town is that Jerry owed a lot of people some money." Angel said softly.

"What are you talking about?" Bobby asked confused.

Angel looked passed Bobby.

"Recognize that dude over there with the fat head?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's Evander Pearson." Bobby said as they watched a man bowl with his daughter. "He used to be alright. Jerry and him used to hang during the union days."

"He goes by Evan now and he's working for a guy named Victor." Angel said.

Bobby looked at Angel putting the pieces together in his mind.

"You guys are coming up with this pretty quick." Billy stated finishing the rest of his beer.

"Yeah, we should have been cops." Bobby replied taking a sip of his drink. "What are we doing here Angel?"

"Holy s**t." Jack said standing up.

The five stood up and moved to look at what Jack had noticed across the ally. Evan and Jerry were standing together in the middle of a lane with Jerry pulling a manila envelope out of his jacket pocket and handed it to Evan.

"I found out Jerry got a big insurance check for mom's death." Angel stated.

"Forget Jerry. We're gonna find him later. Come on." Bobby said walking away from the counter with everyone following him onto the lanes.

"Yo, Evander! What's up?" Bobby yelled as they approached him.

"Muriel! We leaving. Game's over. Let's go." Evan ordered his wife and she and the kids hurried to put their coats on. "It's nice to see you boys but we were just leaving." he said standing with his arm around his daughter.

"You ain't going nowhere." Bobby said. "What were you talking to my brother Jerry about?"

"Nothing. Just saying hello. Me and Jerry go way back from the union days. You know that, Bobby."

"Angel tells me you're one of Victor Sweet's boys now." Bobby said. "Hear he's running s**t like his uncle used to. Treating you like a house ni***r."

"What are you thinking Evan? The dude's a punk." Angel added.

"You've all been gone a long time fellas. Times change." Evan explained.

"What's in that envelope?" Billy asked glaring at Evan.

"What envelope?" Evan replied appearing to be a little intimidated by Billy.

"Oh, you wanna play that f***ing game with us right now?" Bobby asked reaching for his gun.

"Y'all gonna do this here?" Evan asked a bit surprised.

"Right here. Right now." Bobby answered. "I'm sure you remember how impulsive I can be when someone p***es me off."

"Give me the envelope and take a walk." Angel demanded. "Now!"

Evan handed the envelope to Angel.

"Go ahead, Evander. Take the kids home. We'll see your a** again real soon." Bobby warned. "Let's go guys."

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

"You alright Jackie?" Billy asked sitting on the edge of the bed where Jack was lying on his side.

"Yeah." Jack answered softly.

"Come on Jack. Tell me what's buggin' ya." Billy said. "Is it the stuff about Jerry?"

Jack hesitated for a second before answering.

"I don't wanna believe that he had something to do with mom getting killed." he muttered quietly.

"Well hopefully he didn't." Billy said placing a gentle hand on Jack's shoulder. "You'll find out tomorrow."

"You're not gonna be here when he does?" Jack asked sitting up.

Billy shook his head.

"Me and Joe are gonna sit back." he explained. "This is something that you guys gotta settle as brothers. We can't get involved in it."

Jack nodded.

"But we'll come by later if you want. If things don't go bad that is. To tell you the truth Jackie, I don't think Jerry had anything to do with what happened to Evelyn."

"You think so?" Jack asked with a bit of a hopeful tone in his voice.

"Yeah." Billy answered. "He doesn't seem like the kinda person who would take someone out just to help himself."

"I hope you're right Billy. I don't wanna believe that Jerry fell back to his old ways." Jack said.

"Don't worry Jackie. Everything's gonna get sorted out tomorrow. Then we'll go after the guy that killed Evelyn."

Jack nodded and accepted the hug his brother brought him into.

"Other than a little yelling nothing's gonna happen tomorrow." Billy said softly. "Everything's gonna be ok."


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**By: MysticFantasy**

**.**

**.**

Joe right away noticed Billy's nervous appearance and knew that something wasn't right. He knew his brother and this kind of behavior didn't seem right to come from someone like him.

Billy's a dangerous and powerful gang leader. To see someone like Billy be nervous about something...It made Joe feel nervous because he wasn't sure what was about to happen.

"Billy?" he asked cautiously. "You alright?"

Billy looked over to his younger brother before lowering his eyes.

"Something isn't right Joey." he said. "I got this nasty feeling about something. I don't like it."

Joe didn't doubt his brother. There was something about Billy and these feelings he got that Joe didn't go against. Billy was right every single time about them and it made Joe wonder if his brother had some kind of psychic ability. Or it could be pure gut instinct from being raised in the streets of Boston all his life but Joe never doubted his brother when he got these sudden feelings.

"Do you have any idea what it's about?" he asked.

Billy lightly sighed.

"I don't know why but it's got something to do with what's going on with Jack and the guys." he answered.

"Maybe it's just about what they have to talk to Jerry about." Joe suggested hoping it would calm his brothers nerves.

"I hope so Joey." Billy replied. "I really hope that's what it is."

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

"Wait, I thought the city cut you off Jerry." Jack said.

"Douglas? Come on, man. This is Detroit! Sweet owns Douglas!" Jerry explained.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Jack, the only one to notice or care to acknowledge it, got off the couch and went to answer it.

"Douglas ain't nothing but a gangster in a suit! I don't pay him and now he shuts my loans off! End of story, end of project!" Jerry continued.

"So what about the twenty grand?" Angel asked.

"I just told you. You wanna cross the bridge, you gotta pay the toll. I took the money from mom's insurance I was gonna pay the bribe until y'all f***ed it up." Jerry answered..

Jack, glad to momentarily be away from his brother's fighting, opened the door and saw someone in a hooded sweater walking to the opposite side of the street.

"Your mother was a w***e!" he yelled giving Jack the finger.

"Hey look f**k you man. I will kick your..." Jack yelled but was cut off when a snowball suddenly hit him right between the eyes.

Jack wiped the snow off his face with an angry yell. He ran down the steps and chased the unknown man into the street with only a snowball as his only weapon.

"Son of a b***h! Piece of s**t!"

Being so tall with long legs, Jack was easily catching up on the man when he suddenly stopped near the stop sign. Jack slowed and suddenly froze when he was grabbed from behind with a white cloth suddenly slapped over his mouth and nose.

He reached up to remove the arm that held it in place but found the first man grabbing his wrists away as his vision started to tilt and blur and his movements became slow. He felt himself being lifted and moved as a black van seemed to appear out of nowhere. That was when Jack's now drugged mind realized what was going on.

He was being kidnapped.

His limbs went limp as he was being placed inside the van. The last thing he saw before he lost conciousness and before the van door shut was Bobby running out of the house shouting for him.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

"Jack! No!" Bobby cried seeing the van peel out in front of him and quickly vanished from sight when it turned a corner that lead straight to the main highway.

"No! No!" Jerry quietly cursed under his breath as tears threatened to fall from his eyes. "Jack."

Angel was completly stunned and silent. He couldn't believe that their baby brother had just been abducted and they noticed it too late to try to stop it.

"F***ing Sweet!" Bobby suddenly shouted before walking back over to his younger brothers.

Jerry and Angel didn't fail to notice that Bobby's eyes were red rimmed though he had yet to shed a tear. They could see the fiery anger in his eyes that declared death onto those who had taken their baby brother from them but they could also see the great worry that shone even brighter.

Taking their mother from them had already caused Bobby to declare war. Now that their little brother was in danger and in enemy hands, the war was about to get atomic.

"I'll call Billy and Joe." Bobby said softly as he slowly walked back inside.

Now things were going to get even more dangerous and deadly.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Jack slowly opened his eyes and lifted his head, noticing how sore his neck was. He moved his arm only to feel it move an inch before stopping.

Looking down at himself, Jack saw that he was tied down to a wooden chair and was in a basement. Right away he felt memories he had buried resurface which caused him to momentarily panic. Fearing that any second one of his previous foster fathers would show up with another of their costumers.

"Enjoy your little nap?" a voice asked.

Jack looked up and saw an African American man sitting on a chair a few feet from him.

"Who are you?" Jack demanded.

"You can call me Sweet."

Jack froze when he heard that name. Right here before him was the very man that he and his brothers had been searching for. This was the man that was responsible for his mother's death.

He gave Sweet a cold and angry glare.

"I guess you have the right to be mad right now." Sweet said leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "I did forcably take you away from your home and your brothers."

"You had my mother killed you b*****d." Jack added angrily.

"That too." Sweet said.

"Well what the hell do you want with me?" Jack demanded. "What do I have that you could possibly want?"

An amused smirk crossed the older mans face and Jack didn't like it one bit.

"You have no idea how much street value you have kid." he answered. "Do you have any idea how much your brother's enemies would pay if they knew I had you? Being the youngest of both the Mercer and Darley brother's...You would get me paid enough to be set for life."

"You plan to sell me to the guys who want to get even with my brother's? Is that it?" Jack asked skeptically.

"Maybe. Maybe not." Sweet replied. "For now I'm just going to let you stay here for a while and see how desperate your brothers are to get you back."

"If you know anything about any of my brothers, they'll come blow your f***ing head off." Jack said.

"You're probably right. You're a smart kid. Too bad you're not tough enough to be part of my gang or else I wouldn't waste my time holding you hostage." Sweet said before standing. "I'm gonna go make a phone call. Hope you don't mind if I use this."

Jack just glared at his mother's killer when he saw his own cell phone in the mans hand.

"Real shame though." Sweet said. "You've been here for almost an hour and not one of your brother's has tried calling. Guess I'll call them and let them know how you're doin'."

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Bobby didn't flinch when he heard car tires screeching outside and suddenly stop. He knew very well who it was but the fact of what happened only an hour ago was still too numbing.

He, Jerry and Angel had tried calling Jack's phone in the hopes that their baby brother would answer telling them where he was or that he managed to escape somehow but the phone was never answered.

Between the three of them there were about twenty six calls made.

The front door burst open and the three Mercer men stood right as a worried and angry Billy Darley marched in.

"What happened?" he demanded mainly from Bobby. "What happened to my little brother?"

"Sweet's goons came and grabbed him." Bobby answered. "They f***ing took him. Lured him outside, away from us. Got him in a van and drove off."

Billy's anger seemed to lower and his worry started to make itself more appearant.

"Did they say why they took him?" Joe asked with worry clearly evident on his face and in his voice.

Jerry shook his head.

"They just got him and left." he said.

"Have they called or sent a message? Anything?" Billy asked as worry took over the tone of his voice.

Right after he asked that question, Jerry's phone rang.

With slightly shaking hands, the second Mercer brother pulled out his phone and saw Jack's photo on the I.D. screen.

"It's Jack." he announced answering the call and put it on speaker so everyone could hear. "Jack?"

_"Sorry. He's not available at the moment."_ a deep voice answered.

"Victor Sweet." Jerry hissed angrily. "Why did you take him? You know my little brother doesn't have anything to do with what's going on between us!"

_"I know that."_ Sweet replied casually.

"Then why did you take him a**hole?" Bobby demanded.

_"He's my new insurance Mercer."_ Sweet answered. _"I plan to get what's mine and this kid is gonna help me get it. Get cops involved with this and you'll never see the brat again. That's the first and only warning you'll get for the kid. Now I imagine you must want him back."_

"Look, Victor, just tell me what I need to do to get my baby brother back alive and in one piece." Jerry said.

_"Well it's good to see that you're concerned for your little brother Jeremiah. Problem for him though, he's not just the youngest of the Mercer's. He's also the youngest of the Darley's. Both sides of his families have caused problems for me and I aim to fix those problems."_

"Listen you mother f***er," Billy spoke. "You do anything to our little brother and we'll make sure that you pay dearly for it."

Victor's voice chuckled at the other end of the line which made all of them become angry.

_"Look Darley, nothing's going to happen to your baby bro. For now anyway. I do have ideas about how I can even things out with all of you through this kid but I'll save those ideas for later. For now the kid stays with me. I'll let you know if there's a way to get him back. Talk to you later boys."_

"Vi...Victor!" Jerry shouted when the line suddenly went dead. "D**n it!"

"That f***ing a**hole!" Billy cursed under his breath as Joe sank to the couch with worry of what his younger brother might be going through.

Joe knew very well about who Victor Sweet was since his father had done business with him for years before Billy took over. Guns, drugs, any kind of illegal matter that could make a profit was shared between the two.

When Billy took over he cut the business deal to Detroit thinking he wouldn't need it since he had a better way to run things. The cut meant that Sweet wasn't getting his business money which had always been somewhere between ten to almost thirty grand a month.

Joe would guess that whoever was getting that money would be mad when it suddenly stopped as quick as the deals had.

Now it looked like Jack was going to pay for something Billy had done. Joe just hoped that Jack wouldn't be paying with his life.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Sweet shut the phone off and removed the battery and the chip incase the Mercer's and Darley's tried to track him. He locked them in the top drawer of his desk. After doing so he looked over to a heavy set man who was part of his gang.

"Rough the kid up a little." he said. "A few solid minutes of kicking his skinny a**. Make it look good. I'll be sending his brothers a photo of him."

The man nodded before opening the basement door and heading downstairs. Victor locked the door to make sure that his captive wouldn't try to escape. He went back to his desk and started looking at a file.

A small but evil and sinister smirk crossed his face when he heard the sure sounds of a beating taking place. He could hear every contact of a fist, foot or object hit the young man and heard the sounds of pain.

Sweet let the beating take place for almost fifteen minutes before he grabbed his camera and unlocked the door. The second the door opened, the sounds of the beating stopped.

He walked down the small flight of stairs and spotted his man rubbing his hands on a red bandana. His eyes then traveled to the young adult that lay twisted on the floor.

Jack's hands were tied behind his back and his ankles were tied as well. Blood dripped from his busted lip and bloody nose, a black eye was starting to appear and a light wheezing could be heard in his panted breathing.

"Smile kid." Sweet taunted taking two pictures of Jack. "Leave him on the matress then get cleaned up. Make sure to shut him up. I don't want to hear him crying tonight."

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Jack kept his breathing slow since he felt a painful stab in his lower right ribs if he breathed too fast or deep. He was sure that a rib or two was broken.

He could taste blood in his mouth from his lip and the blood from his nose had dried over his skin and the silver duct tape used to gag him. His hands were still tied behind him and his arms were starting to lose feeling.

Suddenly, Jack heard voices coming from above him and he could smell the scent of cooked food which made him feel a little sick to his stomach after the beating he took. He knew that he wouldn't be fed by the man who held him captive.

If there was one thing he learned from years of abuse in different foster homes, he knew that when he was trapped in a basement he was gonna freeze and starve.

Being underground, basements held a cool atmosphere and it helped during the times that he'd gotten fevers when he was younger.

He kept still when he heard the basement door open and close and someone walk down the stairs. What sounded funny to Jack was that it sounded like this person was wearing heels.

He heard a tray being placed down and suddenly someone lightly shaking his shoulder.

"Wake up." a woman's voice spoke.

Jack opened his eyes and saw a young woman looking down at him. She carefully helped him to sit up against the wooden pole and carefully removed the tape from his mouth.

"Here. I brought you this." she said moving the tray into his line of view. Jack spotted a few cut slices of ham with mashed potatoes and peas. She held a spoonful of mashed potatoes to Jack but he turned away from it.

"You need to eat." she said.

"No." Jack replied, his voice a little hoarse.

"Would you rather starve while my husband has his lackies beat the s**t out of you?" she asked.

Jack looked at her with a bit of surprise.

"He's your husband?" he asked softly.

The woman nodded.

"He's my husband alright." she said almost sarcastically.

"How can you be with him knowing he does these things?" Jack asked.

"I know about the things he does and I don't approve of them as much as you. Especially what happened to your mother. She was a really wonderful woman."

"Then how can you stay with him lady?" Jack asked.

"Call me Alice. Believe me I want to leave my husband but I have my children to think about. He treats them well and I'm afraid of what might happen to them if I try to leave."

"I guess that makes sense." Jack slightly muttered before the woman held up the spoonful of food and he refused again.

"Why are you helping me?" he asked.

"I want to leave my husband and know that my kids and I will be safe. I know your brothers and I know that they'll easily solve that problem for me. I'm hoping that helping you will keep them from thinking that I helped my husband with his little plans."

"They might if you explain it to them and if I vouch for you." Jack said as she once again held the food up for him. With a light sigh, he opened his mouth and accepted the food. After a few silent moments of her feeding him, Jack asked her another question. "Do you know why he brought me here? I can guess it has something to do with my brother Jeremiah."

"I know what he's up to." Alice answered. "It's what your brother did. He turned my husband down when he tried to get into Jeremiah's business plan. When your brother turned him down Victor told councilman Douglas to cut off his loans and it ended his project. Victor's hoping that bringing you here will make Jeremiah pay three times as much to get you back."

"But...why did Victor put that hit on my mother?" Jack asked almost desperatly. "She had nothing to do with what happened between them."

"Because she filed a police report on him." Alice answered. "She found out what Victor did to your brother and filed a report about it with the police. She showed them solid proof of what Victor had done to your brother. But the report got passed onto a crooked cop and he gave it to Victor. The file went missing and Victor placed the hit on your mother."

"Do you know who the cop is?" Jack asked as he absorbed the information.

"Yes." Alice answered.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

"I don't know if it was a good idea to call Green." Jerry said watching as the squad car drove down the street. "Sweet said not to get them involved."

"He's got our little brother Jerry." Bobby replied. "How can you just stand there and not worry about what they might be doing to him? You remember what Jack told us about those foster homes he'd been in."

"Of course I remember." Jerry said quietly. "I don't want him to go through that again. I want him back too Bobby but I don't want to risk anything. What if Sweet finds out we did go to the cops?"

"I see where you're coming from Jer but how's he gonna find out?" Bobby replied. "Unless he's got our lines or something tapped I don't think he'll find out so easily. He already knows he's in hot water with us already after what he did to mom. He's gonna get himself thrown to the sharks if he does anything to Jack."

Outside the back of the house, Joe sat on the porch steps trying not to let his worry get the better of him.

He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Billy sit next to him.

"We're all worried Joey." Billy said.

"It's not right though." Joe replied choking back a sob. "We found him after all this time only for him to be taken away again. Is the universe trying to tell us that we aren't meant to be with our little brother?"

"Hey, don't say that." Billy said softly. "Jack's our blood. We're gonna get him back. Whatever the cost."

Joe nodded before Billy told him to go back inside for a while and try to calm his nerves a bit. As Joe went back inside Bobby walked outside and took a seat next to Billy.

"What'd the cops say?" Billy asked.

"They said they're gonna do what they can." Bobby answered. "But they know Detroit and they know our families even more. It's up to us to find Jack."

Billy nodded in agreement.

"I'll get my boys to start asking around. See if they can find anyone who may know something." he said.

Bobby nodded with a light sigh.

"I can tell that this is driving you and Joe crazy. Not knowing if Jack is ok or not."

"You're right." Billy said. "I've never been able to physically show my feelings but this is driving me crazy. Knowing that one of my enemies has Jack. I'm not gonna be able to rest until I know he's back here where he belongs."

"I'm the same way." Bobby said. "I'll turn Detroit upside down to find him if I have to. I won't stop until we bring him back home."

"I've been thinking lately." Billy started.

"Yea?"

"Jack's told me how you guys are to him and how his life here has been. I realized that there's no way I can ask him to leave this place."

"You were going to ask if he wanted to go back to Boston?" Bobby asked curiously.

"Maybe to stay for a while. Like a few months and then he could come back here. To me I wanted him to go back permenantly. Forever be a Darley again. I know now that if I asked him to do something like that he would refuse. This place is his home and you guys are his brother's just as much as me and Joe."

"That's not totally true." Bobby said. "I mean, this is the only place that Jack has ever felt safe in where he knows that nothing horrible would happen to him but every time he mentioned you guys before you got here I could hear it in his voice how much he missed you two. When I saw how happy he was to see the both of you...The last time I saw him that happy was when our mom told him he was part of our family. I know that Jack's gonna wanna spend time with you guys and I know he'll want to go back with you to Boston for a while. That's fine with me that he wants to remember his real blood line. After what's happened today I may let you take him to be away from this place for a while. I've got way too many enemies here and most of them know I have younger brothers."

"I've got a few enemies in Boston but they only know about Joe. They have no clue that I have another little brother and I'm glad about that but I'd rather him be here with you, Jerry and Angel in a place he feels safe in. Also...This, isn't totally easy for me to say but, you've been the brother that Jack needed all these years. Because of what happened to us when we were little I wasn't able to be there for him like I wanted. You've been there for Jack and I can tell that you're both real close. Guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm glad that Jack has someone like you for an older brother and I appreciate everything you've done for him."

"Thanks man. Means a lot to me. Really." Bobby said. "I know that it would mean a lot to Jack too. Especially if we started acting like brothers ourselves. I think he wants that kind of bond between us."

Billy weakly smiled.

"When we get him back we'll talk about it more." Bobby said. "For now we should make sure we have proper ammo and figure out where Sweet's got our baby brother."

"Alright." Billy agreed. "I want my little brother back and I ain't gonna let anything get in my way."


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**By: MysticFantasy**

**.**

**.**

_Ring...Ring...Ri..._

"Hello?" Bobby spoke

_"Bobby Mercer."_ the voice mused.

"Listen Sweet, you've had my little brother for three d**n days. You better let him go!" Bobby warned as Billy stood close enough to listen in on the conversation.

_"No. I don't think so."_ Sweet replied. _"The kid's kinda grown on me. I think I'll keep him here a little longer. But don't worry. He's doing fine."_

"I swear if you're lying to me I'm gonna rip your d**n guts out of you." Bobby warned lowly.

_"Better watch it Mercer."_ Sweet replied in the same tone Bobby used. _"I haven't done anything to the kid yet but I might if you keep talking to me like that."_

"What do you want?" Bobby asked.

_"Like I mentioned before, I got business to settle with you, Jeremiah and Billy Darley. I want that business settled just as much as you do."_

"Just tell me what you want so we can end this already." Bobby said.

_"Fair enough." _Sweet replied. _"I've got a deal I've been working on but it's not quite perfected yet. I've only got half of it figured out so far. I want a hundred grand from the three of you as the first half of the payment. I'll give you a week to get the money and I'll call you to let you know where to drop it and what the rest of the deal is."_

"Fine. We'll get the money." Bobby said. "Where's my brother?"

_"Oh don't worry. He's right here. Doin' fine. But he does miss you boys an awful lot. Guess I'll let you talk to him for a while."_

Bobby and Billy heard silence and then heard light panting.

"Jack?" Bobby asked.

_"Bobby."_ Jack's terrified voice spoke.

"Jack, are you ok? Has he hurt you?"

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

_"Jack, are you ok? Has he hurt you?"_

Jack made a pained face when he felt the barrel of the gun pressed harder against his temple and the hand holding the back of his neck tighten.

"I am ok." Jack lied. "They have just kept me in a room."

_"Jack, tell me the truth while you can."_ Bobby said.

"I am Bobby." Jack lied. "They have not done anything to me."

Sweet pulled the phone away from Jack.

"Told you he was doing fine. I'll talk to you boys in a week." he said before ending the call.

Jack watched as the battery and chip were removed from his phone. He sighed shakily when the gun was removed from his head and the hand let go of his neck.

"Good boy." Sweet said patting Jack's head and smirked when the younger man pulled away. "Think I'll give you a reward for playing along so well. I was going to let the boys rough you up some more but now they won't have to. They'll leave you alone tonight. But be ready to get roughed up tomorrow. Steve, you're guarding him tonight."

Jack saw a slightly overweight man sit on a wooden crate as the rest of the men walked up the stairs and left the basement. The sure sound of the door locking echoed through the cold basement.

"Between you and me kid, I don't like Victor any more than you do." Steve said in a slightly slurred voice as he pulled his coat back, revealing a sharp hunting knife but brought out a silver flask from his pants pocket.

"So why do you work for him?" Jack asked as a plan came to him.

"Need to pay bills." Steve answered before taking a long drink from the metal container. "Victor may be a heartless a**hole but he pays good. That's about the only nice thing I can say about him."

"How did you start working for him anyway?" Jack continued to stall. "You don't seem like a gangster."

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

"They're doing something to him." Bobby declared slamming his phone shut.

"How can you tell?" Billy asked.

"They way he was talking." Bobby answered. "He was using proper grammer. It was a little trick he told me he use to do when he was a kid and had to let the inspectors from the foster system know that things weren't right. He was smarter than those foster parent's he got stuck with and came up with that trick. No one around him spoke properly. Inspectors knew it. So when Jack started speaking proper grammer in front of them they started to think something was up. Jack told me about it when he came here and didn't realize he was doing it to us when he was getting picked on at school. It was something that he had unknowingly drilled into himself as a survival tactic. He's doing it now and that means that Sweet's doing something to him."

"F**k." Billy lightly cursed then turned his attention to the front door where he spotted Joe rushing in.

"Billy, Heco found some guy in one of the bars who was talking about a kidnapped Mercer. Him and Bodie got him and are coming this way in a few minutes." Joe announced as Angel appeared.

"Angel, when they get here bring the guy down to the basement." Bobby said.

"Alright man." Angel agreed as he and Joe went back outside to wait for the guys from Billy's gang to show up.

"This f***er better know where Sweet is keeping Jack." Bobby declared making sure his pistol was fully loaded as he lead the way to the basement.

"He better. Otherwise he's a dead man." Billy agreed.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

"You know kid, you listen to me more than my wife." Steve declared heavily intoxicated. "But then again she's a fat pig."

"How long you been married?" Jack asked carefully positioning himself to get better access to Steve's knife since the drunken man had decided to sit next to him while they 'talked'.

Jack had continued to ask question after question and for almost every questioin Steve took a drink from his flask. He eventually ran out of the drink from the container but had surprised the younger man when he had pulled out a second flask that was filled to the brim. Jack recognized the scent of the drink to be Crown Royal.

Just a few more drinks and Steve would be out cold.

"Too d**n long." Steve answered. "Take my advise kid, don't get married."

"Too much of a hassle?" Jack asked as his guard took another drink.

"Yep. I gave up a lot of years. Years I could have done something with myself only to realize too late that I threw it all away to be with some woman who only cares about the paycheck I get."

"Why not divorce?" Jack suggested noticing Steve's eyes were starting to droop.

"Maybe." Steve replied taking another drink.

Jack noticed that the man had reached his limit. He let out a heavy sigh and put his flask down.

"Let me know if someone comes. Ok?" Steve slurred.

Jack couldn't even answer because Steve quickly passed out. The young rocker waited a few minutes to make sure that the drunk man was really out cold before he reached for the knife.

He carefully slipped it out of its case with only two of his fingers and managed to get a good grip on the handle. He easily cut through the rope around his wrists and ankles and he could feel the feeling return to his numbed limbs as he looked around. There was a small window across from where he was. He was skinny enough to fit through it.

Quickly, Jack moved to the window, unlocked it and opened it. Getting his footing on a box he hoisted himself up and crawled through the small window, trying to keep quiet when his chest radiated with pain from what he knew was a broken rib. He looked around as he slowly stood up. There wasn't a sign of anyone around and he saw how close he was to the edge of the yard.

It was night so he wouldn't be easy to spot if he stayed in the shadows. But the fact that he was wearing a white shirt probably wouldn't help if someone happened to look outside.

He crouched down to the side of the house and quietly edged to the end of it while making sure to stay low under the windows. He came near one window and heard voices inside. He quickly recognized the voices.

Victor and his wife Alice.

"You know that his brother's are going to come to get him. I don't wanna be here if they come guns blazing." Alice's voice barked.

"They don't know where the little f***er is so shut it already!" Victor snapped.

_What an a**hole._ Jack thought as he continued to sneak by. He wished that he could do something to help Alice since she'd helped him so much while he was a captive in the house. Maybe he could think of something later if he made it out of this.

Coming to the edge of the house, Jack peeked around the corner and gasped when a dog on a chain started barking at him.

"S**t!" he hissed and started to run as best he could down the street. He ran as quickly as he could while holding his side where his chest was hurting most.

A few yards and seconds later he heard someone, most likely Victor, yelling and heard car tires screeching.

Ducking into a dark ally, Jack rushed toward the back and went behind the building. He tried opening the door but it was locked, so he pressed forward.

"_Check all of the allies!_"

"D**n!" Jack hissed under his breath. He came to the end of the ally and looked around for any sign of Victor Sweet or his men. He didn't see any sign of them and rushed down the street.

He was near the end of the block when he suddenly heard a loud pop and felt a white hot pain in his leg which caused him to collapse onto the sidewalk.

Jack held his knee and felt his warm blood flow onto his hands. He scrambled to get up and started to limp away until he felt himself being roughly grabbed and thrown to the ground. His left arm was grabbed and twisted painfully behind his back and he felt a gun pressed against the side of his face.

"Let me go." he begged.

"Shut the f**k up." Sweet ordered pressing the gun harder into Jack's face. "You almost got away. You're exactly like your brother's. They know how to escape without getting caught. If it hadn't been for my dog you would have gotten away and would be on your way back home. But now I got you back and, believe me, you're gonna pay for trying to get away."

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

"Let him breathe." Bobby ordered stepping back and watched as Heco brought their captives head out of the small tub of ice water and let him breathe.

"You better start f***ing talking!" Billy ordered putting a gun to the man's temple. "Where are they keeping Jack Mercer?"

"F**k you!" The man coughed before his head was forced back under the water. He struggled for about a minute before Heco brought him back out of the water.

"You gonna start talking or what?" Bobby asked picking up the small gas can.

"Ok." the man panted. "I'll talk."

"Start talking then." Billy declared lighting a cigarette as Bobby opened the lid of the gas can.

"Sweet has your kid brother at his place." the man stated. "He keeps him under serious watch. Said something about selling the kid to your enemies before you paid him the ransom that way you'd have to hunt your enemies down for the kid while he skipped town."

"You're telling the truth?" Bobby demanded pouring gasoline on the man but being careful not to get any on Heco.

"Is it the truth?" Billy half shouted kneeling down and holding the cigarette close to the man's gas soaked clothing.

"Yes, it's the truth." The man exclaimed almost panicked at how close he was to death from the Mercer's and Darley's.

"Where does Sweet live?" Bobby asked.

"He lives on Ivory street. The house numbers are 741 and his black escalade is always parked in the driveway. He never puts it in the garage and he's got a grey pit chained in the front yard."

"You're sure?" Billy tested holding his cigarette even closer.

"Yes! I'm sure!" he cried.

"Fine." Bobby said.

"Heco, take care of our friend while me and Bobby check out his story." Billy ordered.

"My pleasure." Heco said with a grin as the two left the basement and went back into the house.

"I'll let Heco and Joe stay here. We can take the rest of my guys with us incase they're packing some serious fire power." Billy said as he grabbed extra magazines and stuffed them in his pockets.

"Alright." Bobby agreed. "I'll call Jerry and tell him to come over and stay with them incase something goes wrong. This f***er is gonna pay if he's done anything to Jack."

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Jack was sure that he was either dead or in hell. His breathing was basically nonexistant right now and he was sure that most of his blood was covering the cold floor he was lying on. He could feel the thick blood around him and could feel it flowing from his open wounds.

The pain of his knee had faded away long ago and now the pain of the cuts, small stabs and hits were the only thing he could feel besides feeling like all hope was lost.

To make sure that he didn't try to escape again, Victor had ordered his leg and ankle to be broken. The order was happily carried out by his lackies. Due to years of experience, Jack could feel where the breaks were.

He knew that if he continued to bleed like this or the wounds became infected or the basement became any colder he was going to die long before his brother's found him.


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

**By: MysticFantasy**

**.**

**.**

"Jerry, we'll call and let you know if the story was a bunch of s**t." Bobby said opening the passenger door of the mustang and allowing Angel to climb into the back. Dog, Spink and Tommy were climbing into the second car behind Billy's. "If it is then I need you to help lay out a meeting so we can arrange a way to get Jack back."

"Alright." Jerry agreed with a nod. "You guys be careful if this is true."

"We will man." Bobby assured. "Stay inside and wait for my call."

Jerry nodded as he watched his brother's and new friend climb into the mustang and take off down the road. His mind, body and spirit was filled with worry. Worry over his two brothers and Billy but mostly about Jack.

What if the information was wrong? What if Jack wasn't there? What if he was already...

_Snap out of it man._ Jerry scolded himself as he hurried back inside. _He's still alive. He's waiting for us to find him. Bobby and Billy will find him and bring him back._

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Jack felt himself getting colder the longer he laid on the floor. His body was covered in dried blood, his right eye was nearly swollen shut, his broken leg was radiating with pain and he felt like he was seven years old again.

The only difference was that he hadn't been molested yet and hopefully that wouldn't be part of the plan these maniacs had.

Unconsciousness was starting to slowly decend onto him and Jack was trying to fight it off as best as he could. The blissful state of sleep would take all the pain away but he was also scared that it would do more than take away the pain.

He had to try to stay awake. His brother's were coming for him. He knew they were.

_Click_

Jack became a little bit more alert when he heard the basement door open and footsteps coming down the stairs. He shut his eyes and pretended to be unconscious. He could at least hope they thought he was dead and leave him alone.

"Check if he's still breathin'." Sweet's voice ordered.

Jack did all he could to keep from flinching when he felt someone's fingers on his neck.

"He's still kickin'."

"Alright. Hurry up and get things ready."

Jack started to panic a little when he felt a gag placed over his mouth and felt his limbs being tied.

"Hurry up and put him in the chest." Sweet ordered.

_S**t._ Jack cried in his mind.

"Get moving!" Sweet ordered. "Make sure that kid can breathe in there. I need him alive until I make the meet with his brother's before I kill them. I'll call you when they're dead and then you can throw him in the river."

_What the hell?_

"Don't worry boss. He'll be breathin' until you give us the word." a voice declared.

The young rocker felt himself being lifted by two people and carried a small distance before he was lowered into what felt like a small space. He heard the sound of a large door slam shut over him.

He opened his eyes and went fear was over him when he saw that he was inside a rectangular chest. It was big enough to hold him but he had to keep his knees bent to fit. There were two round holes closest to his head that were about and inch big and wide each.

Carefully adjusting himself, he was able to look out the hole that was in direct line of his sight. One of the lackies feet was seen moving toward him and he heard a blanket being drapped over the chest but not the two breathing holes.

_S**t._ Jack thought and felt tears sting his eyes. _I'm gonna be dumped into the river if Sweet has his way. I'm never gonna see my brother's again._

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Angel kept his eyes locked on the house across the street. The exact house that was said to be the prison where his only little brother was behing held captive.

"We go in five." Bobby announced softly.

"Good. I'm ready to put one of these babies through Sweet's f***ing skull for taking our little brother." Billy said holding his gun.

Bobby smiled a little when he heard Billy say 'our' instead of 'my'. He'd noticed that he and the oldest Darley brother had a lot of things in common besides their love of Jack. They were slick when it came to sneaking around and getting what they needed, they were both violent and they basically knew every possible way around the law.

It would be awesome to think of Billy as his younger brother. Maybe it could happen one day. It sure would make Jack happy.

The five minutes passed and Bobby gave the order for them to move in. Billy ordered his guys to go around the back and make sure everything was clear. He and Bobby then moved toward the front door and tried to look through the windows.

Angel reached out and grabbed the doorknob. He looked back at the two older men who nodded and had their guns ready.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Jerry lightly paced back and forth in the living room. His thoughts were racing as the minutes continued to go by.

Joe was sitting quietly on the couch as his knees bounced up and down nervously. He now had, not just one, but two brother's out there. Their lives were in danger and he had no clue what was going on.

"You alright Joey?" Heco asked standing in front of the window.

"Just...nervous." Joe answered before standing. "I'm gonna grab a beer. Want one man?"

"Sure." Heco answered.

Jerry watched Joe head to the kitchen and quietly followed him. Standing in the doorway, he saw Joe stand at the fridge and lean against it with his forehead against the cool door.

"Joe, I know you're real scared right now..."

"Scared." Joe scoffed softly not moving. "I was scared when I knew my father was still alive. I'm worried and nervous. My only family is out there. The only two people in the world I care about and I don't know if I'll ever see them again."

Joe turned around and looked Jerry straight in the eyes.

"Do you have any idea how it feels to watch your youngest brother being carried away and never seeing him again? Not knowing if he's alive or dead? Having that same thought pass through your head for sixteen years? Jack's my only little brother. I finally got to see him again after all these years we were apart. It's killing me thinking that we may be torn apart again. Forever."

"I have that same worry." Jerry said. "And you're right about me not knowing what it's like to never see my baby brother for sixteen years. But my baby brother was taken away and I don't know if he's alive or dead or if I'll ever see him again. That thought hasn't been in my mind for sixteen years but these past few days is enough. My worries haven't been as long as yours but I still have them."

"Guess I am scared." Joe said after a few moments of silence. "Jack is my only younger brother and Billy is my only older brother. If they're gone I'll be all alone."

"You'll have us." Jerry stated lightly. "Even if that happens, Lord forbid, you can stick with us. You're Jack's brother so you're kinda like our brother too."

Joe weakly smiled.

"You have no idea how happy Jack would be to have heard you say that." he said.

Jerry smiled.

"Let's get those beers. I'm sure Heco is wondering what's taking you so long."

"Yeah." Joe agreed with a nod and opened the fridge door to grab three beers.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Billy watched as the last of the lackies fell to the ground with a hole in the middle of his forehead. Total, there had been eleven of Sweet's lackies they had taken down.

Now they were working their way into what appeared to be a kind of poker room. There was a single chair at the table and the person they were after was sitting in it.

"You're early for the meeting." Sweet said as if this was a regular gathering between friends.

"Change of plans in the agreement." Bobby declared. "You don't get s**t and we get our little brother back."

"And what makes you think that I'll just hand him right over?" Sweet challenged.

Bobby and Billy both aimed their loaded pistols at the man who kidnapped their youngest brother.

"You can't kill me." Sweet declared lightly.

"And why is that?" Bobby demanded.

"Because you don't know where he is."

"What the f**k are you talking about?" Billy demanded.

"He's in a safe place that only I know about." Sweet answered. "My little followers did know where he is but you've taken them all out, leaving me the only one who knows where little Jackie is."

Billy fired his gun and it landed right in Sweet's right knee. He moved foreward, grabbed the man by his neck, threw him to the ground and pressed the barrel of the gun into his face.

"Now you better tell me where my little brother is." he warned.

Sweet only smirked.

"You shot me in the same place I shot your brother." he muttered.

Bobby felt his anger rise as he knelt next to Sweet and put the barrel of his pistol right between the man's eyes.

"What the f**k did you say you did?" He demanded softly.

"By the way, does Jeremiah regret that he didn't team up with me?" Sweet replied. "I'm sure he does after what's happened."

"You f***er." Bobby spat. "You killed our mother and you've got the guts to mention it in front of me and my brother. I oughta kill you right now."

"Then you won't find out where your precious little brother is." Sweet pointed out.

"Where is he?" Angel demanded as he kicked Sweet in the ribs.

"He's locked away boys. I locked him away and threw away the key. Good luck finding him." Sweet groaned before Billy pulled the trigger of his gun that allowed the final bullet to fly through Sweet's head.

"He's bluffing." Bobby said. "There ain't no way that he'd let Jack out of his sight if we were gonna pay him three hundred grand."

"Then he still has to be here." Angel said.

"Spread out and look for him." Billy ordered to his gang who quickly took off and started searching the house for any sign of the missing person.

"Check the basement." Bobby said. "There's a chance that they put him down there if they know us better than they let on."

Angel hurried over to what he guessed was the basement door and saw that he found the actual door that led to the lower level of the house. He switched on the light and went down the stairs.

Once he got to the floor he froze upon seeing a sight he'd seen many times before but this one seemed to have a stronger blow to his gut.

"Bobby!" he called as a small wave of dizziness washed over him.

"Find something?" Bobby asked coming down the stairs with Billy right behind him.

Angel pointed to what he saw and it caused the two to stop in their tracks. The spot that the Marine was pointing to was the floor near a wooden beam that was covered in dark red blood.

Bobby slowly moved forward and kneeled down. He reached out with his gloved hand and touched the blood. He wasn't too surprised when he saw that it was only just now drying.

"It's still wet." he announced. "This happened recently."

"F**k." Billy cursed softly.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

_They're here!_ Jack cried weakly in his dazed mind. _Please, find me. I don't know if I can stay awake much longer._

"See anything?" Bobby's voice asked.

"No." Angel answered.

"What if Sweet did move him somewhere?" Billy asked.

"Could have but like I said, three hundred grand is a lot of money. Sweet would be stupid to have let Jackie out of his sight." Bobby answered.

_I'm right here!_ Jack wanted to shout but his strength was lacking and getting worse.

"I don't see anything Bobby." Angel said.

"S**t. Let's go check the rest of the house. Jack has to be somewhere close by."

_No!_ Jack screamed.

He had to give them a sign that he was there. That he was locked away.

But what could he do?

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

_Bump_

Angel whirled around when he heard the small noise.

"You guys hear that?" he asked.

"Yeah." Billy answered.

"It came from over there." Bobby said pointing to the back of the basement.

_Bump_

Angel walked closer to the back of the basement and noticed a small spot of blood that was off from the small pool. Only a few inches from it there was a second spot followed by another until it ended altogether in front of a covered chest.

The third oldest Mercer knelt and saw a small hole near the bottom of the chest. Lowering himself, he managed to look into the hole to see what was inside.

"S**t. Bobby! He's in here!" Angel shouted getting up and yanking off the cover only to see the lock that was on it.

"Break it!" Bobby ordered grabbing a hammer and handing it to Angel.

The Marine took the hammer and started to hit the lock as hard as he could. After a few hits, the wood around the lock cracked and it was enough to let the two older boys break it completly and throw the lid off.

They all froze when they looked inside and saw a sight that would give them nightmares for weeks.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Billy couldn't even remember the last time he was in a hospital. He knows that he was in one when Jack had been born but he couldn't recall ever being in one after that. Maybe the day his baby brother had been born was the last time he'd been in a hospital. He wasn't too sure.

Heck, he couldn't even remember how he got to the hospital after they had found Jack.

Sitting next to him, Bobby sighed heavily. The waiting was getting to them all. An hour had already passed since the ambulance had brought Jack into the ER. During that hour, the five of them had done nothing but wait on pins and needles to hear how Jack was fairing and not once has a doctor come out to explain anything.

Glancing to his right, Billy saw Joe looked incredibly nervous. He was just grateful that Joe hadn't seen Jack like they had. It would surely have put him in shock and he would end up in the hospital along with their younger brother.

Billy reached up and placed a comforting hand on Joe's shoulder.

"He's gonna be alright Joey." he said softly.

Joe nodded. He believed that Jack would be alright but there was still that little voice inside him saying that things weren't going to be ok. It was probably due to the fact that when they were kids things were never alright.

He would be told one thing and then something else would happen. Like almost everything had been a lie from the beginning. The only things Joe was sure of was that he has two brother's that he cares for with every inch of his soul and he didn't want anything to tear them apart again.

Having been apart from Jack for twelve years was hard enough.

He'd always wondered where Jack had been taken to and what kind of life he had without them. Joe had always feared that the worst had happened to Jack.

For a while the worst had happened but he was finally brought out of it and taken into a loving family where he had brother's just like him and Billy and he had a mother that really loved him.

He wondered what their mother was like. She had died shortly after Jack had been born because of blood loss due to the stress their father had put on her while she had been pregnant with Jack. He remembered what she looked like but he couldn't recall much of anything else.

He did remember that they were never hungry or dirty when she had still been alive. He wondered how things would have been if she hadn't died. Maybe she could have taken them away from their father and they could have stayed together.

But all he could do was wonder. Reality had torn him from his little brother and put him and Billy back with their father. Reality had kept them apart for sixteen years until it finally allowed them to see each other again.

But reality also might seperate them once more. And it might be permenant this time.

Bobby was about to get up and talk to the ER receptionist when the doors opened and a doctor walked in.

Since they were the only ones in the room the doctor went straight to them.

"You're the family of Jack Mercer?" he asked.

"That's us." Bobby answered. "We're his brother's."

"I'm Dr. Miles. I'm Jack's surgeon."

"How is he?" Jerry asked.

"Your little brother took quite a beating. I'm not sure if you were aware but he's been shot in the knee. It wasn't too damaged but he'll need to stay off it until it fully recovers which may take a few weeks. He also has a broken leg and ankle which we managed to set back in place. There is a broken rib but it'll mend quickly since it wasn't too serious. He did have a little head trauma but that's also nothing too serious."

"Will he be ok?" Angel asked.

"The few broken bones, the shot to his knee and a concussioin were the worst of his injuries. With some physical therapy his knee will recover to its full use and everything else is just going to take a while to heal. He's going to pull through and recover just fine."

Billy felt a huge weight lift from inside him.

Jack was ok.

"When can we see him?" Joe asked.

"He's being moved to his room right now but you'll be able to see him in about half an hour." Dr. Miles answered. "You can grab something to eat or do something to make the time pass. One of the nurses will come get you and let you know when you can see your brother."

The doctor took his leave and left the men alone.

"Thank God." Jerry exclaimed softly.

"No kidding." Billy agreed. "Jackie's definately our little brother. He's strong."

"Speaking of which, I have an idea that would really make Jack happy." Bobby said and decided to use up the thirty minutes they had by explaining his idea.


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

**By: MysticFantasy**

**.**

**.**

"Are you sure you can make it in time?" Bobby asked as he stood at the entrance of the hospital doors with Billy and Joe. "You don't have to go right now if you don't want to. I mean, Jack isn't gonna wake up for a few days but still."

"We don't really want to but it'll make the surprise that much better for Jack." Billy answered, his breath coming out in small puffs in the cold night air.

"It would." Bobby agreed. "Alright. If you think you can make it on time go ahead. Be careful driving. The highways sometimes have ice on them."

"Alright. Thanks man." Billy said as he and Bobby quickly shook hands.

The oldest Mercer brother watched as the two Darley brother's walked out into the parking and to the black mustang. He watched them climb in, start the car and slowly drive away.

"I hope they get back before Jack wakes up." he said to himself. "I have no clue what to tell the fairy if they're not back by that time."

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

"You think we'll be back before Jack wakes up?" Joe asked.

"Joey, who's your big brother?" Billy replied with a grin as the car started to pick up speed.

"I was an idiot for asking." Joe declared making sure his seatbelt was on as the car was steered onto the first rampway.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

"Think Cracker Jack will be out of it the whole time they're gone?" Jerry asked as Bobby stood in front of the coffee machine waiting for his hot coffee.

"I hope so." Bobby answered as the papercup appeared and coffee started to pour into it. "I mean, just until they get back and the surprise is ready. But if he wakes up before they get back then we just gotta keep him in the dark about it."

"He's gonna be mad if he does wake up before then and he finds out they left." Jerry said as the coffee finished pouring and Bobby grabbed the cup then stepped aside for Jerry to get his.

"I know." Bobby agreed taking a sip of the hot beverage as Jerry slipped the coins into the machine. "He's gonna be p***ed if he finds out they're gone. He was real happy to know that they found him and that they were here close by. He's gonna have a breakdown if he wakes up before they get back from Boston."

"We're just gonna have to hope that they get there, take care of things and get back before that happens." Jerry said grabbing his coffee. "Billy said that they got from there to here in one night. If they do that again for both trips and if they burn through the day to get their stuff dealt with then we're looking at maybe a day or two that they'll be gone."

"Doc said Jack's gonna be out for maybe three or four days cause of the concussion." Bobby said before finishing his coffee, crushing the cup and tossing it into the nearest trash can. "If they're willing to lose some sleep then I think they'll do it in time. For Jackie, I'm pretty sure they will."

"They're just like us when it comes to Cracker Jack." Jerry said with a small smile. "Willing to do anything for him."

"Older brother's wanting to see their youngest happy and safe." Bobby added with a small nod.

"I think we were a little harsh on Jackie before. Right away assuming that he would try to go back to being a full Darley because his real brother's found him. We didn't wait to hear what he wanted to do or what he felt on the matter." Jerry stated.

"We were being too harsh." Bobby said going back to the coffee machine and placing in more change for another cup. "I feel bad for it. Right away we jumped to assumptions because we're scared of loosing him. We should have known that Jack would be happy to see his family after being apart from them for so long. Especially after how they were seperated and how close they were. Still are. I think we were being a little too over protective of Jack. We should have trusted him more. Trusted his judgement. Instead we go assume things and get him upset."

"Maybe we could make a fresh start with Jackie." Jerry suggested. "When he wakes up and we give him the surprise, we should start fresh. Clean slate. We give him our unquestionable trust. He gives us that kind of trust. The least we can do is give it back. Maybe we can even try to not be _as_ protective of him as we have been."

"Sounds like a good idea except for the being less protective part." Bobby said grabbing his cup. "When the surprise is over, we might have to do the same with Billy and Joe. They did keep their promise. They never so much as raised their voices to Jack. They didn't let anything happen to him. Which is more than what I did."

"Hey, Jackie's gonna be ok. He just needs to rest for a while and then he'll be back to trying to get you to stop calling him a fairy. Don't go and blame yourself for what's happened." Jerry said.

Bobby weakly smiled.

"He can try all he wants to get me to stop but it ain't gonna happen." he said tossing his untouched coffee into the trash can. "Come on. Let's go back and check how Angel's watching him."

"Give Angel some credit. I'm sure he can watch Jack without messing anything up."

"Yeah right. Remember when the fairy was nine and had that fever, I had to run to the store to get him some medicine and stupidly left Angel in charge?"

"Ok. You got a point there."

"D**n right." Bobby agreed with a nod. "Come on Jer. Let's go check on our little sisters."

Jerry smiled with a small shaking of his head as he followed his only older brother.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Angel looked up when the door opened and he saw his brother's walk in.

"Where's my coffee?" he asked.

"D**n it." Bobby cursed under his breath. "Sorry Ang."

"Dumba**." Angel huffed getting up. "I'll get it myself."

"Alright, alright. Don't get lost." Bobby said as the younger man walked out of the room. "Five bucks says he gets lost."

"Give him _that_ much Bobby." Jerry said.

"Is it a bet or not?"

"Alright. It's a bet."

Bobby grinned before sitting down and looking down at his youngest brother who laid unconscious in the hospital bed. His grin faded seeing Jack laying broken before him and his mind flashed back to the moment when they had found him.

Seeing him crammed in the chest, all of that blood covering his body and the floor, hearing how serious his injuries were...

The only good side was that Jack being unconscious was giving Billy and Joe a chance to go back to Boston to straighten a few things out. He just hoped that it would be long enough for them to take care of their things and get back before Jack woke up.

Bobby would be the first to agree that Jack would be seriously upset if he woke up and found out that Billy and Joe were gone. He would surely feel like as if his family was torn apart again and he might even feel that he won't ever see them again.

If that happened Bobby knew that Jack would suffer from a broken spirit and a broken heart then sink into depression.

And that was the last thing Jack needed right now.

It was the last thing they all needed. To have their youngest further broken and in ways that weren't so easy to heal. They could just hope and pray that it didn't come to that.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

_"How's he doin'?"_

"The doctor's checkin' him out right now. He's still out cold cause of the meds they're giving him. Morphine and s**t like that. Probably won't wake up for another day or so. How are things on your end?"

_"We're movin' as fast as we can. Things should be done by tonight. If they are then we should be able to head back tomorrow and be back there close to maybe nine at night."_

"Good." Bobby sighed in relief. "I still have no idea what to tell him if he wakes up before you guys get back. I know that he's gonna be upset to know that you're gone if he does wake up and he's gonna be p***ed at us for not telling him where you really are. He knows when we're hiding something from him."

_"Sounds like Jackie. He was the same way when he was little. He always found out where we hid any kind of presents we got him or if we were up to something he thought might get us in trouble. Guess he'll be able to see through anything we try to pull on him."_

"As a little brother can do from time to time." Bobby said.

_"Yeah. Anyway, I better get back to helping Joe. He's complaining that he's doing everything. If Jack does wake up and you find a way to explain where we are, tell him that we'll be back soon and that he doesn't have anything to worry about."_

"I'll tell him." Bobby promised. "See you soon man."

_"Later Bobby."_

Bobby placed his cell phone back in his jean pocket. He exited the empty lobby and went to the still open gift shop where he picked up a few things for his youngest brother.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

"You really are asking him to kick your a**." Jerry commented as Angel struggled to keep his coffee from spurting out his mouth when laughter threatened to erupt.

"The closest he's ever gotten to that was when he kicked me on my leg when he was ten and that was on accident." Bobby answered putting the vase of white daisies and pink roses on the nightstand next to the bed and placed a small bear dressed like a fairy in front of it that held a sign saying _Get Well Soon_.

"When he sees the bear he's really gonna be mad at you." Jerry said. "The flowers he'll forget, maybe, but the bear...This might be a good enough distraction if he wakes up and asks about Billy and Joe."

"Hopefully it will." Bobby agreed. "Billy called a while ago. Said that things are moving quick and they should be done by tonight. If they do get done tonight then they should be back sometime tomorrow. Billy said maybe in the late evening."

"Then let's hope that Jackie stays asleep long enough for them to finish everything." Angel said.

"If he wakes up we can find something to dope his a** and put him back under for a while." Bobby suggested.

"Bobby." Jerry tried to scold but chuckled instead.

"Don't say that doesn't sound like as best a plan as we can get right now." Bobby replied with a grin.

"And where do you plan to get the stuff to put him under?" Jerry asked still grinning.

"Angel can go flirt with a nurse and I'll grab it when she's not looking."

"No way man." Angel replied.

"Hey, if I say you're doing it then you're doing it."

"No way."

"I'm the oldest so you're s**t out of luck."

"Man, you ain't the boss of me."

"Says you."

Jerry tried to make his laughter as quiet as possible but found it very impossible as his two brother's continued to throw statements back and forth to each other.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Hours later, Bobby found himself sitting stiffly in the armchair next to the bed where Jack continued to sleep. He'd literally only moved about five or six times within the past six and a half hours. He'd managed to convince Jerry to go home to be with his family for a while but he hadn't been able to talk Angel into going home for a while.

The young Marine had fallen asleep in a second armchair about two hours ago and hadn't moved an inch since. Bobby envied him at the moment. He hadn't been able to sleep because he was constantly looking at his watch. It was just a little over six hours ago that he had last talk to Billy about how quickly progess in Boston was going.

After checking his watch for possibly the four hundreth time, Bobby heard his jean pocket ring. Quickly, he reached into his pocket and grabbed his phone. He answered it before it could wake Angel and possibly wake Jack although the last part might be a impossible since there was still no sign of the youngest waking up.

Bobby opened his phone and sighed in relief when he saw it was a text message from Joe. He pressed a button that opened the message and read what it said.

_Halfway back to Michigan._

The oldest Mercer smiled happily as he started to type the reply message.

_Great. How much longer do you think it'll be before you get back? Are your boys coming with you?_

Bobby waited anxiously as a painfully slow forty seconds went by before a reply appeared.

_Yeah, they're with us. Should be about two hours. Trying to move fast but there's a lot of cops out tonight. How's Jack?_

_Still out cold but I don't know for how much longer. He might be awake by tomorrow afternoon though. Think you can be here by midnight?_

_We're gonna try to. Can't promise it though. Just try to make sure that things are quiet until we can get there. We want the surprise to go as we planned._

_Alright. I'll try to make sure that he stays asleep at least until tomorrow afternoon. Try to get here soon man. _

_We'll do our best. See you in a few hours._

Bobby turned his phone to vibrate before shutting it and putting it back in his pocket. He felt a little more relaxed knowing that Billy and Joe were close. They were only about two and a half to three hours away.

He sure hoped that they would get here soon.

Bobby turned his attention to his left when he heard a yawn. He grinned seeing Angel stretch and nearly slip out of the armchair but caught himself in time.

"What time is it?" he asked sleepily.

"Around eight thirty." Bobby answered.

"D**n." Angel muttered. "Has Billy or Joe called?"

"Joe texted a while ago." Bobby answered. "Said him and Billy are, at most, about three hours away. They're trying to get here fast but the pigs are out and about."

"For once." Angel commented as he sat up then slowly stood. "I'm gonna go grab a bite. Want something?"

"Yeah. Get me a soda and a sandwhich if you can."

"Alright. Be back in a few minutes." Angel said as he left.

"Too bad Jerry ain't here. I'd like another five bucks." Bobby muttered as he slouched in his chair then looked at Jack. "How many bets have you and me won off of those two Jackie? Between the two of us we must have won almost five hundred bucks. Maybe more. Think we'll win more since Billy and Joe will be around? I think we will."

The door opened and Bobby saw a small nurse enter with a small cart holding various medical items.

"I'm sorry Mr. Mercer but it's time to change your brother's bandages." she said.

"Alright." Bobby said standing. He took a quick look at Jack before leaving the room and entering the white hallway. He sat on one of the chairs that was available and waited for Angel to return.

Looking up and down the hallway Bobby felt a little out of place. He never liked hospitals despite having placed himself in them a few times. He was just relieved that the little more he settled down he didn't have to be in them as much anymore.

The wild fire still burned inside him, it just died down a little over the years.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

Angel looked up when the door to Jack's room opened.

The nurse that had gone in earlier was finally finished. Bobby didn't fail to notice the red spots inside the plastic trashbag placed on the bottom shelf of the cart. It made his stomach sway a little which caused him to forget the untouched sandwhich in his hands.

Seeing something like that, especially knowing where it came from, did little to ease his worried mind.

Once the nurse was gone, the two went back into the room. The changed bandages were visibly seen on the youngest who continued to sleep.

The two sat down in their chairs and Bobby proceeded to try to eat his sandwhich since it was the first thing he'd gotten a hold of since the day they had stormed into the house.

He had to force the first few bites down but after a while his appetite started to return and he started to eat the sandwhich with ease.

Just as he had taken the last bite and threw away the wrapper, the door to the room opened. Bobby had hoped that it was Billy and Joe but Jerry walked in instead.

"Thought we told you to go home for a while and be with the girls." Bobby said.

"You did and I was. But it's late and the girls are asleep so I told Camille that I wanted to come back for a little while." Jerry explained.

"She's gonna chew you out later." Angel said with a knowing grin.

Bobby chuckled at the sure to be true statement. If there was one thing he had learn from Jerry and Angel about their women it was that they would be furious later if they were gone for too long. That was one of the reasons that he stayed single.

Knowing that a woman would yell at him if he got back home a minute later wasn't exactly his idea of a relationship.

It was also another reason why he always picked on Jack about being gay. He knows that his little brother is straight but he picked on him in hopes that he would pick a decent girl to be with if he ever really got serious about a relationship.

Jack had already had too much heartache. He didn't need another caused by a woman who turned out to not be the one for him.

"Camille won't get mad. She knows what's going on and she really hopes that Jack will be ok." Jerry said.

"Why does she only like him and not us?" Bobby asked knowing it would make his brother think of him as ignorant. "I'm a likable guy."

"By the cops who get overtime for just trying to get you in the squad car." Angel declared making Jerry laugh.

"You better watch it little brother." Bobby warned. "You know I know how to plant evidence without getting caught. I'm sure Sofi can yell louder than what she can if she found another chick's bra in your room."

"You better not Bobby."

"Then keep your trap shut."

Jerry laughed more. This was definatly the plus side of having brother's. Good arguing and entertainment. He stood back as the two continued to trade remarks for the next few minutes. But when Bobby was making a statement about Angel catching a spanish virus, he suddenly noticed something that they hadn't.

"Bobby!" he whispered urgently. "Jack! He's waking up!"

"What?" Bobby exclaimed as he turned his attention to his youngest brother who was slowly starting to move as consciousness slowly took over.

"What do we do?" Jerry whispered urgently.

"Stall of course." Bobby whispered back. "We wait until he's awake and then we'll get a doctor. We'll take that chance to call you know who and explain what's going on."

The two nodded in agreement and turned their attention back to Jack who was moving a bit more.

"Jack?" Bobby said softly leaning close so his brother could hear him. "Come on Jackie. Wake up. Open your eyes."

Jack lightly sighed and his eyes slowly fluttered open. He was obviously dazed and sedated. Not totally clear on where he was or what was going on.

"Jack?" Bobby said softly and gained his brother's attention. Tired blue eyes looked up at him and a light of recognition appeared.

"Bobby?" Jack muttered in a hoarse voice.

"Hey Jackie." Bobby greeted with a smile before turning to Jerry. "Jer, go get a doctor."

The second oldest did as he was told and hurried out of the room to find a doctor.

"Where...where am I?" Jack asked between breaths.

"You're in the hospital Cracker Jack." Bobby answered. "Don't worry. Everything's alright. You're ok."

As soon as Bobby finished his sentence, Jerry appeared with a doctor right at his side.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

_"He's awake?"_ Billy exclaimed.

"Yeah, he woke up a while ago. The doctor's been with him for at least twenty minutes already." Bobby answered.

_"D**n. We're still almost an hour away."_

"We can try to stall until you guys get here. But if those meds wear off then Jack's gonna start seeing that something ain't right."

_"Think you can get the doctor or nurse to give him something to make him go back to sleep or make him drozy?"_

"I can try but I think they're gonna take Jack's word over ours on that. Unless the doctor's already giving him something I think we're gonna have to try to stall." Bobby replied.

_"Alright. We'll try to move as fast as we can between towns. We'll try to be there as soon as we can."_

"Alright. We'll try to keep Jack occupied until you get here." Bobby said. "See you soon."

_"See ya Bobby."_

Bobby closed his phone and turned to his two brother's who were looking at the closed door to their youngest brother's room.

"They said they're still almost an hour away but they're trying to get here as soon as they can." he announced.

"What are we gonna tell Jack when he sees that they're not here?" Angel asked.

"We'll say that we sent Billy and Joe to the house to get some sleep because they were seriously worried about him and needed to rest for a while." Bobby answered.

"Think he'll buy it?" Jerry asked.

"It's all we can say unless you wanna tell him the truth and blow everything." Bobby replied. "If he thinks we're lying we just gotta stick to our story."

"Jack _can_ see when we're lying." Jerry pointed out. "We've never been able to hide anything from him and he always knew if we were lying."

"You're right. He's probably gonna see that we're lying to him now but we're just gonna have to play along. Keep to the story no matter how mad he gets." Bobby said.

"Knowing Jack, he's gonna get real mad." Angel stated.

"Get ready for the silent treatment." Bobby said as they continued to wait for the doctor to finish his diagnosis. Only seven minutes went by before the doctor made his appearance and explained how Jack was doing.

Morphine would make him a little out of it, wounds were healing, leg and ankle looked fine, concussion would fully wear off in about a day and he was in stable condition.

That was all the three wanted to hear.

Bobby quickly sent a text message to Joe to let him and Billy know how Jack was doing. When he was done, he nodded to Jerry and Angel to follow him and together they quietly made their way into Jack's room.

Jack was lying still in his bed with his eyes shut and the three were somewhat upset if he had gone back to sleep. But the sound of the door creaking a bit caught the youngests hearing which caused him to open his tired eyes.

"Hey Cracker Jack." Bobby greeted with a smile as he hurried to the bedside. He ran his hand through Jack's flat hair and asked. "How you feelin' fairy?"

"Sleepy." Jack answered softly.

"It's the meds they gave you." Jerry said. "Do you want to rest some more?"

"No." Jack answered trying to sit up which Angel helped him do. "I want to be awake for a while. How long have I been out?"

"Not very long." Bobby answered. "About two days. Wish I could sleep that long."

"Let Sofi bust you in the head with a bat and you will." Angel declared making Jack weakly chuckle.

"Keep it up Angel." Bobby warned before turning back to being concerned to Jack. "Need anything Jackie? Water? You hungry?"

Bobby tried to hide a look of fear when he noticed Jack looking around the room.

"Where's Billy and Joe?" he asked. "I thought they'd be here."

Jack then turned curious dazed eyes to the present oldest brother, expecting an answer.

"Where are they?" Jack asked.

"We sent them home not too long ago to get some shut eye. They were really worried about you Jackie." Bobby answered hoping Jack would believe him. It didn't seem like it since Jack seemed to get a little suspicious of the answer he was given.

"I've been awake for almost half an hour." he said. "If you called, then they should have been here by now. Did you call them?"

"Honestly, no. They're both really worn out Jack and they need to get some rest." Bobby said looking Jack straight in the eyes to try to further convince Jack of the story he was giving him.

Instead, Jack glared at him.

"Bobby. Where are they?" Jack asked slowly, his temper about to get the better of him.

"They just stepped out to get some rest Jack. They've been worried sick about you and we convinced them to rest up for a few hours. They'll be back soon."

"Stop f***ing lying Bobby!" Jack snapped as he tried to get up only for pain to radiate through his body and he collapsed back against the pillows. The heart monitor picked up his excited heartbeat.

"Jack, relax." Bobby advised helping get Jack into a more comfortable position. "Getting worked up like this isn't gonna help."

"_You're_ lying to me and you're giving _me_ a lecture?" Jack almost laughed.

"What makes you think I'm lying?" Bobby challenged.

"You're looking me right in the eye. You never do that when you're telling the truth." Jack answered lightly panting.

Bobby caught the look Jerry was giving him.

'He's got you there'.

"Where are they?" Jack demanded getting more upset. Bobby realized that Jack's fear of Billy and Joe being gone was coming out. And when Jack was scared then all hell would break lose.

"They're just away for a whie Jack but they're coming back." Bobby said hoping it would be enough to calm his youngest brother down.

"Where?" Jack questioned.

Bobby didn't answer and this further frustrated Jack.

"If you won't tell me then go away." Jack said turning his head away from the oldest brother. "Just leave me alone until you decide you want to tell me the truth."

"Jack..." Bobby tried to speak but only got a bruised finger pointing toward the door.

"Jack, don't be mad at him." Jerry urged and got glared at next.

"You're on his side, you leave too."

Bobby motioned for the two younger men to follow him. They left the room feeling bad that they were making Jack so upset even if it meant that things would get better later.

They hated to see him upset in any kind of way.

"Well, that went well." Angel muttered half sarcastically as they stood alone in the hallway.

"Don't worry about it." Bobby said. "Everything will be alright once Billy and Joe get back in a couple of hours. Let's just give him time to let out some steam and calm down then when Billy and Joe get back we'll come see him again."

"You wanna leave him alone for that long?" Angel asked a bit surprised.

"Well, not totally." Bobby answered. "I mean, we can stick around and make sure that nothing bothers him. We don't have to go into the room to make sure he's ok. The doctors and nurses can handle that. Besides, it's only until morning."

"Sounds good." Jerry stated.

"Ok. It's already night. They're probably gonna give Jack something to eat and then he'll probably go back to sleep. I think we should head home for the night and wait for Billy and Joe. I'll let them know what's going on and we can all come together in the morning." Bobby said.

"That's about all we can do right now." Angel said rubbing the back of his neck.

"Alright. Let's go." Bobby said taking once last glance at the door to his brother's room before they walked down the quiet hallway.

**.**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l**

**.**

The next morning, Jack was staring out the window but not really looking at anything. His mind was set on last nights talk with his brother's.

Why wouldn't they tell him where Billy and Joe were? Why did they leave in the first place? Was all of this to get his hopes up only to let them fall and shatter?

His heart was hurting so badly that it was making him feel sick. After so many years he was with his real brother's again and now they were gone again.

And once again, he was alone and in pain.

But with Bobby, Jerry and Angel not wanting to tell him anything, he didn't mind being alone right now. He didn't want to hear them try to cheer him up because he knew they were just trying to get him to forgive them for not saying anything.

Right now, he wasn't sure he could forgive them.

He was sure that they had seen how happy he was to have Billy and Joe back in his life. He was sure that things would have been different once all of the mess was overwith. But it looked like he was wrong. Again.

Suddenly noticing how dry his mouth felt, Jack reached over to the side table to get a cup of water and stopped when he saw a vase of flowers and a small bear dressed like a fairy holding a get well sign. The thought was amusing and he knew who's idea it was but he couldn't bring himself to smile.

He reached passed the bear and grabbed one of the pink plastic cups. As he brought the cup back it bumped into the bear causing it to fall and roll under his bed.

Jack only sighed. He could barley reach the cup, he knew he couldn't reach the bear. Grabbing the small pitcher, he filled the cup and took a long drink.

When he had his fill and was satisfied his mouth didn't feel like a desert anymore, he put the cup back on the small table and leaned back against his pillows as his mind once again drifted back to last night.

Only a few minutes into his depressed thinking, the door to his room opened and he was a little annoyed when he saw Bobby poke his head in.

"Hey Jack." he greeted.

"Leave me alone." Jack replied.

"We got a surprise for you though." Bobby said fully walking into the room.

"You know I hate your surprises." Jack said.

"You'll like this one." Bobby said holding the door open.

Jack looked over and sat up more when he saw his two blood brother's walk in.

"Hey Jackie." Billy greeted as Joe hurried over to Jack's side.

"Where have you been?" Jack half demanded as Joe embraced him and he tightly held onto him. "I thought you had left."

"We're sorry Jackie." Billy apologized grasping his brother's hand. "We did leave for a while and we asked Bobby, Jerry and Angel not to tell you because we've got a surprise for you."

"You're back. That's all I need." Jack declared.

"You'll like this one though." Angel said.

Billy reached into his coat pocket and brought out a folded piece of paper that he handed to Jack.

"What's this?" Jack asked taking the paper.

"Open it and read it fairy." Bobby answered and got a small glare. It was obvious Jack was still upset with him but Jack had the right to be.

The youngest opened the paper and carefully read what it said. When he got to the bottom of the paper he felt his eyes go wide when he saw Billy and Joe's names but with something added onto each of them.

They both had officially added Mercer to their names. He looked up at Billy and Joe as if asking for conformation or that he wasn't seeing things or the meds weren't taking side effects to a new level.

"Though it would be a good way to make sure that we could always stay together." Billy said. "It was all Bobby's idea. We're all brother's now."

"They're even letting us move into the house." Joe added. "We're fixing the attic up and it should be done by the end of the week."

Jack looked enterly relieved to know that his worries and fears could finally be put to rest. That he woudln't have to be scared that he would be apart from his blood brother's again. He felt a great weight lift from within him knowing that they could permenantly be together.

"You still mad at us for not telling you the truth Jackie?" Bobby asked.

"Yes."


End file.
